Witch with a capital B
by schak
Summary: England, who the hell would think moving from the safety of France to England in the middle of a war was a good idea? Nobody, but her parents apparently. Lily had spent her first five years at Beauxbatons and was now transferring to Hogwarts. Along the way she meets old and new friends. AU stories that follows Lily adjusting to her new life and changed relationships.
1. Prologue

Witch with a capital B

Prologue

That creepy boy had always been around Lily.

Following her around like a pathetic puppy and telling her about his stupid "wizarding" school. He stole Lily away and wanted to steal her even more by taking her to his magic school and leave her, Petunia behind. She, of course, knew his name; Severus Snape.

A stupid name for a stupid and creepy sister-stealing boy.

The worst part was that he was right. One day a little strange man in strange colorful robes showed up at their door. He was asked in and given tea before he told them stupid stories about magic, and their school and and and Petunia was angry! When her mum and dad were in the kitchen to talk among themselves about everything, Lily was excited and asked a million questions.'So I am really a witch then?' 'My friend Severus says he's a wizard! He told me all about magic when he saw me make a flower fly!' "What subject do you teach?' 'Is it difficult to learn?' 'What is Hogwarts like?' 'Are there dragons and unicorns?' 'Can Tuney come too?'

The man answered all of her questions with a good natured grin and even laughed at her curiosity.

"Oh so many questions!" He said sounding excited. "You would do great in Ravenclaw. That is my house, Miss Lily!"

Lily looked at him as if he was the greatest thing ever and that was stupid, because he was already a head smaller than her.

When their father returned and stopped the man in his explanations, Petunia had to hide her glee. "Professor Flitwick, was it? Yes, we are amazed and quite frankly speechless and your offer is more than generous, but we are supposed to move abroad in two months." Their parents had told them about this plan just last week after their father received a new job offer.

"Oh." The strange man was disappointed at the news. He seemed confused for a moment before asking, "Where will you move?"

"France, Professor," Her dad told him. Petunia was already excited. They would start French classes the day after tomorrow with the whole family.

Petunia wanted to laugh when she saw Lily's face take on a miserable look. HA, none of them would go to some magic school and that creepy boy would be gone as well. They could finally go back to being just Lily and Tuney.

"I see, I see, I see." The little man twirled his beard. "That is an unusual situation."

"Does this mean I can't go to Hogwarts anymore?" Lily's voice quivered at the thought.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I will have to contact a couple of people first and of course it depends on what your parents want." He replied in a kind manner. Tears appeared in Lily's eyes and she sniffled quietly. "Now, now, don't worry Miss Lily, even if you can't go to Hogwarts, Beauxbatons is a great school as well."

"Basbaran?" Her parents exchanged a very confused look before staring at the teacher.

"Beauxbatons." He corrected them cheerfully. "It is an excellent school in France for children like Lily. I'm sure she will love it there."

"What?" said Mr. Evans. "There is another magic school in France?" Their father sounded a bit helpless with the situation.

"Oh yes of course!" The funny man clapped his tiny hands. "Nearly every country has some form of magical schooling. Beauxbatons is another boarding school. I'll have to speak with their Headmistress to see if Lily could enroll there instead. I will return in the next couple of days to discuss everything with you." He emptied his tea cup before waving them goodbye and then vanishing into thin air with a loud crack!

"That was interesting…" Their father said while staring at the place the man had been just stood moments before.

'No,' Petunia thought, 'That was very strange.'

Exactly five days later, a big woman appeared at their door. She wasn't big in the sense of overly tall, but wide. Petunia was shocked to notice that the woman had wider shoulders than her father! She had some scars on her hands and a stern face. Petunia thought, it was a bit scary to have her watch you. 'Do all magical people look a little off?' Petunia asked herself., if all magic users looked a little off; 'First that creepy boy, with his far too greasy hair, then the little man and now this woman who was se shoulders were nearly as wide as she was tall.' Petunia grinned to herself when she thought of her sister becoming stretched incredibly thin to fit in with this strange crowd. She had to grin at the idea that Lily would soon grow very tall and thin like a stick figure. She wore normal clothes, not like the little man, but she seemed uncomfortable in them. The woman, Madame Ourstueuse, spoke English with a heavy French accent. She also spoke to the Evans family about a magical school but hers sounded a lot less exciting than the one the little man had mentioned. She barely talked about magic, only that it existed and that it was important for Lily to learn how to use it. She talked about the French,Latin, math and science classes at Beauxbatons, but it didn't sound like she was teaching any of those subjects.

The adults discussed those boring subjects for an awfully long time, before their mother asked while uncomfortably shifting in her seat, "What about magic?" She seemed embarrassed just to say the word.

The look on the Madame's face shifted somehow. "She will be taught to control her talent and would not be a problem to anyone. You don't 'ave to worry about it at all. It wouldn't be graded." Her tone made clear that this was the last she would say on the matter and their mother and father nodded along.

"So it is essentially a normal boarding school with a few special extracurriculars?"

"Qui, yes." Mr. Evans immediately looked relieved but Petunia didn't think the woman was being honest with them. She looked at her parents to see if they felt the same way but they only seemed pleased with her answer. Lily on the other hand looked disappointed; however, her face soon lit up.

"If it is a nearly normal school, could Tuney come with me to this one?" she asked.

"Non." Madame Ourstueuse didn't give any explanation and continued to talk about the boring parts of Lily's education like how much money they would need for the first year. Apparently the following years would be less expensive, but for the first year Lily would need around five-hundred pounds for a school uniforms, books, and some other things. The woman didn't say what other things, but from what the little man said Petunia suspected the money was for a wand and a cauldron, so why didn't this woman just say so?

Finally their parents agreed to send Lily to Beauxbatons. She would arrive in Paris at the 24th August and would return for winter break in December. Post could only be sent to students once a week, as it was seen as a distraction from their education. She gave them a paper with an address in Marseille. 'Why would they drop of Lily in Paris if the school was in Marseille?' Petunia wondered. It was very strange.

Petunia felt less jealous of her sister now that she was going to that Beauxbatons school instead of Hogwarts. There was not much time to think about it between their move to France, learning a new language and finding a new school for Petunia, she didn't have time to think about Lily, her magic or new school. Plus, Petunia was very proud that she as the best in her family to learn the new language, even better than Lily.

It was strange to drop off her sister in Paris. They were at a small café that was an hotel as well. There were around forty or so other students and their families, none of the families were magical either. No one was really talking about magic except for Lily and some other students her age, who tried to get information from the older students. However, they told Lily and the other children to wait and not to pester them any longer. Petunia noticed that her sister had some trouble talking to the other students, because her French still wasn't very good. Their mum and dad talked with some of the other parents and apparently none of the students did magic at home or even talked about it. Later, one of the older students announced that it was time to say goodbye and that everybody had to grab their suitcases.

Lily hugged mum and dad tightly before she turned to Petunia.

"I promise I will talk to the school and ask if you can come, Tuney!" She said with tears in her eyes while looking up at her sister nervously.

"Pah! That school sounds dull. Why would I want to go there?" Even if this was a practically a normal school, Petunia thought it would be terrible to be the only student who couldn't to any magic. She quickly looked away from Lily, before she could see the disapproving look on their parents' faces. Petunia watched the other families and while they hugged and said their goodbyes. Many students looked a bit distant and from their families. It was very strange.

Petunia didn't see Lily until a week before Christmas. Sure she wrote to them every week, but the letters were short and didn't say anything about magic at all. She asked Petunia some questions, but she never answered any of the questions they asked. But mum and dad wrote a letter back every week. Petunia didn't have time to write to her stupid magical sister at her boring magic school. She had her own school that was much cooler and made some friends there. She and the girls loved to talk and giggled together and Petunia learned French really fast with their help.

When Lily came home, the first words that sprung to Petunia's mind were sad and tired. Their parents had picked her up in the same place they had dropped her off in August. She still didn't talk about magic or the school at all. When Petunia, was out with her friends she could sometimes see Lily on her own at the playground and Petunia pretended not to know her, because really, only babies go to the playground. Her friends didn't know that Lily was her sister and when Camille started to make fun of Lily because she was that weird loner at the swings, Petunia didn't say anything. Not even when Lily heard them and started to cry and ran home.

'Damnit! Mum and Dad will be so angry.' Petunia thought. But to her surprise, her parents didn't say a thing when she came home two hours later. Lily clearly hadn't told them about what happened. A bit later, her mum told her to call Lily for dinner.

"Lily, come out. Dinner is ready!" She knocked on the door a couple of times.

"Go away! I'm not hungry!" Petunia stared at the door for a moment, worried. She had heard tears in Lily's voice.

"Is… is everything ok?"

"Go away!"

'If Mum and Dad find out she is crying, I will so get in trouble,' Petunia thought. "Come out and stop being a cry baby!"

"Go away!" Lily now sounded more angry than sad.

"Oh, come on!"Petunia was angry now too. Why did Lily make such a show out of the fact that Petunia's friends didn't like her? She had magic and should be happy all the damn time because of that! "You're acting like a stupid baby! It's not like you will be here long! Soon you will be back at your stupid school!" Petunia shouted against the door. She didn't say what was really on her mind, because then she would have to mention magic. And no one in their family ever said magic. Even Lily.

Her little sister tore the door open. Her red hair was still mostly in her ponytail, but some strands had escaped. Her eyes and nose were red from crying. "Do you want to switch! Because I want to!" Lily shouted at her.

'Switch? Switch what? Magic? That doesn't make sense. Nobody would switch magic for anything!' "What are you talking about? For what?"

"Friends!" She shouted back.

"What?" Petunia said in confusion.' What did Lily mean? Didn't she have friends in her school? That didn't make sense. Lily was disgusting likable. It was one of the facts of life that Petunia grew up with. Yes, she could find new friends easily too, but everybody that spent time with Lily automatically adored her. "Why?"

"Because I don't have any! I'm not good at French and the others only make fun of me or ignore me… And all the rules and-" She stopped talking in the middle of the sentence and looked around as if she expected someone to spring up.

Petunia was speechless and wasn't sure what to do. Lily stood in front of her crying because some stupid children were mean to her. That had only happened once before, when they were younger. A boy had pulled her hair all the time and pushed her down. Back then Petunia had defended her little sister, by going up to the boy and shouting at him and when he laughed at her, she shouted a bunch of mean little rumors about him for everybody to hear. Some she had made up, but nobody knew that, because everybody thought that Petunia knew everything about everyone. He never went close to her little sister again. That had been before the creepy boy and his magic showed up in their life. But now Lily stood in front of her just like back then, but Petunia couldn't defend her against those kids.

But she could teach Lily how to do it herself!

"If you can't speak French you have to learn it. Tomorrow you will come with me and my friends and you can't speak English at all and-" Petunia didn't invite her sister so much as order her to come, before Lily interrupted her.

"But your friends laugh at me as well!"

"Well then don't let them. Say something back, stupidhead. You're already a witch, how difficult could it be to be a bitch from time to time." Petunia was already thirteen and she had learned more insults than eleven year old Lily.

Lily looked at her in shock and awe as if she had just been told her one of life's biggest secrets. She rushed over to Petunia and hugged her and mumbled some 'thanks you's against her. Petunia put an arm around her as well. She was always going to be a big sister and no magic and creepy boys could ever help Lily like she could.. Because she, Petunia, would always be the only big sister Lily ever had. In that moment Petunia felt like a weight she didn't even know she was carrying was lifted off her chest. 'Who needs a stupid magic school that didn't even do any real magic?' she thought.

After that the two girls spent a lot more of the holidays together. They weren't as close as before that creepy boy came into their lives, but they were sisters again. They fought and made up without apologizing. They shouted at each other and stole ice cream out of the fridge together. One evening when their parents were out and they watched a movie, Lily told her half asleep that some older students always read her letters before letting her send them home. Before Petunia could ask why, Lily was already asleep.

That was very strange.

That school was very strange.

Having a witch for a sister was very strange.

But it wasn't strange to have a little sister that was normal. Normal was good.

* * *

A.N. Hey, this is a story idea that wouldn't leave me alone for some time and so I sat down and start to write.

In this story, I would like to show what could have been, if Lily hadn't always been to Hogwarts and how this could have changed her relationships and world views. This prologue hints at some of the different magic laws in France compared to Britain and how it would be difficult for Lily to find friends if she not only was new to the magic world, but to France as well; a different country with a different language. And it shows us how Lily and Petunia got a bit closer again.

I would like to get reviews to know if you like the story and to improve my writing.

I found a brilliant beta reader in hurricanehairandemeraldeyes. Thank you for your work. Over the next few weeks I will exchange the chapters for the corrected once.

Have a nice day.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

James and Sirius sat in the living room in front of the fireplace and waited for their friends.

'It is going to be great to have all the boys over for the summer,' thought James.. Sirius had spent the last year with the Potters because he just couldn't stay with his family anymore. Arriving in the dead of night with only a black eye and his wand, Sirius was immediately welcomed into the Potter home and became an inofficial member of the family. This summer was going to be awesome with Sirius and would certainly beat all those summers he had to follow his mother around to her boring parties. Not to mention the fact that Remus and Peter, the other two members of the infamous Marauders, would be staying for most of the summer as well! The four of them had gone to Hogwarts together for the past five years and were the designated school pranksters. Hogwarts, of course, was the best school for magic in the world, if you ask a Hogwarts student or graduate. The four boys were the only Gryffindor boys in there year and had shared a dormitory since they first started school. They did everything together and when they found out that Remus was a werewolf, the other three even became illegal animagi to help him during full moons s.

It was going to be epic!

"We could play quidditch! I already made sure that we have enough brooms." James sounded like an excited toddler, his brown eyes dancing with restless energy. There were few things in life that could make James Potter this happy, one of them was quidditch.

Sirius groaned at the prospect of playing against the Gryffindor captain and sank deeper into the sofa. "Only if I get Remus on my team and you take Peter or it's the three of us against you." He had no interest in actually playing the game because he knew that James would win, no matter what (there was a reason why James was on the house team r and none of the other Marauders were after all). Sirius was just as eager for their friends to arrive as James if only so that he could pass the job of listening to James' unstoppable desire to talk about quidditch on to somebody else.

Finally, after the two had eaten nearly all of the cookies that Mrs. Potter had left for all four of them, the fireplace lit up in green flames and then Remus and Peter stepped out of the flames. Sirius and James immediately jumped up and hugged both of them.

"Moony, Wormtail!" Sirius threw his arms around them and faked some dramatic tears. "Thank Merlin that you are here! I couldn't listen to another minute of him talking about quidditch!" He pointed an accusing finger at James.

"Oi!"

"Oh poor Padfoot." Remus patted his back in false sympathy, as his amber eyes twinkled with amusement. Peter continued in a similar manner.

"All alone with a quidditch crazy lunatic," Peter nodded like a well meaning therapist. "How terrible."

"He talked all the time! If I had to hear one more thing about a Sneezle maneuver or Van Oppisch double bluff I would be scarred for life!" Sirius' "sobbed" onto their shoulders even harder.

His two friends fixated on James with a very disapproving look and slowly shook their head in unison.

"I see how it is!" James crossed his arms and shouted back. "I'll find new mates! Better mates! Ones that appreciate me!" He turned around in hopes of making a dramatic exit, but was prevented by his mother, Euphemia Potter, who entered the room in that exact moment.

"Oh you boys arrived!" She rushed over to Peter and Remus and hugged both of them. "And just in time as well." James' head whipped around and he stared at his mother. That phrase, her favorite phrase, was a tell tale sign that she was going to make him do something that he really didn't want to do.

"Mum?" His voice was shaking a little bit.

"Jamesie dear," James groaned internally, she only called him that if she wanted something from him. "You see, the old Smith house is finally sold and a new family is moving in." James began to back away and search for the closest escape route. "I talked to them for a moment and they moved here from France." He was far enough away from her now that he could just make a run for it, but she still had Sirius, Remus and Peter in her grasp. "They have to move so many things into the house and it has already been such a long day for them." Wait why was he worried about those traitors? He should just get away while he still could. He slowly walked backwards towards the door. "So I offered them the help of you four strong gentlemen." RUN! James turned around to sprint as fast as he possibly could,, but his mother's voice stopped him in his movement. "James Fleamont Potter! You will now go down the street and help our new neighbors to move in. Or I swear to Merlin and Morgana you will not sit on a broom for the rest of the summer."

Incredibly unhappy with the ultimatum, James grumbled, y. "Yes, mum…" He stared daggers at the floor and shuffled off with his friends. "You know, we could have been safely on the quidditch pitch if it weren't for you guys…" The other three rolled their eyes at him and started to snicker. "Oh shut up…" What was it with his mother and her obsession to be friends with all the muggle neighbors? Not that he had a problem with muggles, but it was annoying nevertheless. And they never had any children his age…

When they got closer they could already see the treck, no trock, truck! that's it, the truck and they could hear people shuffling boxes about. James went to the open back and looked inside. There was a lot of furniture on the back and a middle-aged man. He was a few years younger than his own father, but James knew that his father was old. The man was heavy set and had retreading brown hair. He looked a bit surprised to see the four teenagers and came to the end of the truck the greet them.

"Hello there, I'm Martin Evans, can I help you boys?" He wiped away some sweat from his forehead.

"Hello, Mr. Evans. I'm James Potter and those are my friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." Each of them gave a small wave when he introduced them. "My mum said you could use some help."

He laughed shortly and answered. "That nice lady, who introduced herself some time ago?" He considered his surroundings before turning back to face the boys, "I'll admit, we have too much to do to turn away even some involuntary volunteers." He had an easy smile and offered James his hand. "Could you boys help me to get the things from the lorry and later we will get you a pizza out of it?"

Well that certainly beat doing it for free, like his mum would have them do. So they agreed and Peter and Remus climbed up to form a conveyor belt with Mr. Evans as Sirius and James took the furniture from them and carried it inside. Without magic! James groaned internally, he hated stupid manual work! If it wasn't for Quidditch.

The cupboard they carried was heavy and Sirius once again pushed in a way that rammed the stupid thing into James' ribs.

"Watch out…" He couldn't even rub the bruise so he channelled his anger and pain by glaring at Sirius.

"Sorry mate."

A squished finger and some scraped knuckles later the bulky thing was finally in the house with minor difficulty. Although Sirius maintained that James intentionally dropped the cupboard on his foot, but nobody could proof anything.

"Oh hello?" A soft and confused voice asked from behind. They both turned around and saw a girl around their age. She was a pretty blonde, with bright blue eyes and a skinny build. She wasn't the most beautiful girl James had ever seen her face was a bit too long for that, but she was pretty nonetheless. Besides James had learned that the most beautiful girls were often vain, arrogant and overdramatic. James didn't like neediness in a girl. Always putting up with his girlfriend's demands didn't sound like a good time to him.

A month before summer began, James had ended his last and longest relationship to date. It had been six months; however, James had looked for an excuse to break up for nearly three months earlier. And since then he hadn't gone out with a girl. Maybe a little fling with a nice muggle girl could change that. He ruffled his hair charmingly and took a step closer to her.

"Eh, hi." He didn't normally sound so stupid in front of girls, but he hadn't expected to see one here.

"Oh, hello there beautiful." And why didn't Sirius sound as stupid? "I don't think we've met yet. Sirius Black, a pleasure to meet you." He took her hand and placed a small kiss on it and she responded with a faint blush. James wanted to puke. Every other guy would send a girl screaming and running away with behavior like this, but for some reason Sirius just made girls flustered!

"Eh, P-Petunia Evans. Nice to meet you." She looked down on the floor with her cheeks still stained pink, but didn't pull her hand away.

James stepped next to Sirius in a way that would force him to move over and let go of her hand. "Hello Petunia, I'm James Potter. It seems like we are neighbors now." That was more his style. Full sentences and a charming smile.

"Really, that's nice. What are you doing here with my cupboard?" Her voice was shy and it was obvious that she wasn't quite sure what to think about them.

"My mother volunteered us to help you move in." James put on his signature charming smile and was pleased to note that she blushed in response.

"Then thank you," She looked around for a moment. "Do you want something to drink?"

"Yes, please." Both he and Sirius said at the same time and then looked at each other. Petunia was a cute girl and definitely his type. James liked his girls to be a bit shy and easygoing. Sirius had fewer requirements for a potential girlfriend, he was only really interested in their looks.

Once Petunia left the room, both boys looked at each other and both whispered, "Dibs!" They then immediately glared at each other.

"Padfoot, since when did you like the girls I like? I thought quiet girls were too boring for you." James hissed at his best friend.

"They are, but she is the only fine bird, our age in the area." He whispered back.

James was about to answer but then Petunia reappeared with two glasses of juice.

"So," James began. "You lot are the new neighbors. You, your father and mother?" James smacked himself internally. Really was that the best topic he could come up with?

"And Lily, my younger sister." She answered with little euphoria and James imagined a small ten year old version of Petunia running around.

"Is she with your mother?"He took the general silence in the house to mean that no little children were around.

"No, she is still in France for two weeks." Petunia rolled her eyes, showing her dislike of that idea. His image of her little sister soon changed. . Nobody would leave a child behind in another country right?

Sirius seemed surprised as well, "How old is she?"

"Sixteen, a year younger than me." She crossed her arms in front of her. "Mum and Dad let her stay a bit longer, because she was raising hell about moving here. From how she acted you would expect that the apocalypse was on its way to England." She pursed her lips and shook her head.

"Well that is an honest mistake." Sirius said with a far too serious face, before grinning. "But we normally just call it British Summer."

His joke made her laugh and she covered her mouth while doing so. Good manners, thought James. His mum would love her.

"What the-? Why do you guys get something to drink and we didn't?" Peter sounded outraged, when he and Remus appeared with a strange big white box in the door. The box had a round window and looked heavy.

"Ah, of course, one moment." Petunia turned to go back into the kitchen, when she turned again. "And you are?"

"Could we do the introduction later?" Remus asked breathlessly, his smile was a mix between apologetic g and painful. "This thing is heavy."

"Yes, I'm sorry. The washing machine has to go into the cellar." She hurried to a door that led down some stairs. Remus and Peter's eyes widened and a look of panic crept over their faces. With a silly sidestep walk they moved towards the cellar door.

James and Sirius couldn't see them, but they could hear them.

Something rumbled and they could heard Remus cry out. "NO, Wormy! Slow down! Argh! You haremin- urg!" Remus always tried to bite back his curses. All other three marauders were completely convinced that he knew the most devastating insults out of all of them, but he refused to share them. As Sirius liked to say "Remus' brainy brain is the Eldorado of insults, we just have to find the key to it". Yes, it was a game who could make him swear the most. It was a close race between Sirius and Peter. For some reason James couldn't push Remus' buttons like those two. Sirius' approach was to be the most annoying fu- ever and Peter just frustrated Remus, all the time.

A bit later both Peter and Remus reappeared out of the cellar. Peter was intensely apologizing and Remus was hobbling up the stairs, a dark look on his face.

"It's alright, Peter. Just let me sit down for a moment." Remus reassured their small friend through clenched teeth.

Petunia hurried to get a camping chair out from somewhere. Remus sat down and smiled at her in gratitude, but the girl recoiled from him after noticing the different scars on his face. Not a lot, but it was there. She flinched for a moment and dawned a guarded look while she tried to determine what could have caused the she analyzed him, Petunia quickly turned back around to get something else to drink. James wasn't sure if Sirius or Peter had seen it, but he was sure Remus noticed as well, because he saw his friend's face fall.

Petunia shouted from the kitchen something about cooling down and Sirius went over to Remus and leaned on his shoulder.

"Is Remmy-baby hurt?" He asked in a kindergarten voice. "Do we need to find someone to kiss him better? But not Petty there." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder towards the door Petunia had disappeared through. Oh, so Sirius had noticed? James was a bit surprised. "Because I have dibs on her." Or not… "Along with Prongsie here, we called her at the same time." He had a wide, sinister grin on his face. "Not that he could ever win against me."

Until that last sentence James had been ready to call back his dibs, because of how she reacted to Remus, but his competitive nature wouldn't let him now. "As if I would lose to a mutt like you."

"So we." Remus motioned at himself and Peter. "Are risking our physical health, while you flirt with the first girl you see? Unbelievable…"

"Hey, don't be jealous that you can't get a girl." Sirius patted him on the shoulder.

"I could if I wanted to, but calling dibs is stupid…" Remus blushed slightly as he spat those words out.

"I would say the same, if I couldn't get a girl…"

"I could! You know what, the next cute girl we see, I'll call dibs on and I will go out with her." He snarled back.

"Sure you will…"

James snorted, Remus would never do that. He couldn't even talk to most girls without stuttering.

"Chauvinist pig."

* * *

A.N.

A first look at James in the story. We will have to wait for Lily a bit longer. I hope you liked the chapter and are willing to review to help me learn and improve. Hurricanehairandemeraldeyes is my new beta and I can't express how grateful I'm for the help.

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine and I don't try to make money with this


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The boat Lily was on rocked back and forth and Lily realized, she really didn't like boats. Luckily as a witch and with modern muggle planes she would not be forced to use one very often. She took a sip out of her coffee. It was cheap, horrible coffee, that tasted like it was reheated a couple of times, but she drank it anyway because she would otherwise fall asleep any moment amd she was in the muggle world and there she drank coffee. The book she was reading was boring. Some people in Beauxbatons would be shocked to hear something like this from her. Lily loved reading and never found a book too boring and always finished any book she started reading. Everybody knew this in Beauxbatons.

That was of course a lie. A very well cultivated lie. You didn't become The Nerd, by putting books aside. Not a nerd, but The Nerd, two capital letters. It was her brand in a way. The Nerd that could, with her amazing brain power, help you out in nearly all things. If you need to pass really badly, go to her. There are lots of ways to keep that believe up. You could switch out the book covers, next time you are in the common room you just open the book at a later page and you make sure the book looked a bit used if it is a new one or you just force yourself to read it anyway because it was important. Like this one was.

The cover suggested that 'Princess of the Moon' was a fantasy book with lots of magic and this stuff. If you read those books as a witch, they become pure comedy gold. Lily couldn't say if the 'Princess of the Moon' was any good, because the book inside the cover was not that one. The Compendium of Mugglerelated Laws of Great Britain. No matter how terrible 'Princess of the Moon' was written it would beat this one in any competition. Lily had read laws before, even magical laws. Hell her first two weeks at Beauxbatons had been nothing but law reading.

It had been strange to step into the magical world for the first time. She had been so nervous and excited to meet other people, students and the first impression had been so disappointing. The meeting point had been a little restaurant near the train station. There were around forty or fifty students in different ages all with their muggle parents and none of the older once had talked to them about magic. Lily was afraid that French magic would be nothing like Severus had told her British magic would be. When it was time to say goodbye Lily wanted to cry to her parents, but she stayed strong and hugged them one last time. And then something strange happened, as soon as all the families were gone and all students went through some kind of curtain, the older students opened up. They began to laugh with each other and got their wands out playfully fight with each other. They even sat down with the young students to tell them about the real school and it as everything Severus had told her.

"Don't worry about all that boring talk you heard, that is just for the muggles. The whole math and Latin classes are not important. You, my little snotty-nosed firsties will learn Charms and Potions and Transfiguration and DaDA." And with each subject the seventh year student told them about he produced a small spell that correlated with it. "But tomorrow you will first go shopping with us." He gestured to a couple other older students that gave them a small wave. "We will buy you your books and cauldron and WANDS!"

"Why can't our parents come with us?" One little boy asked him.

"They're muggle. They can't go into the magical world and you can't tell them about it. Got it? First thing tomorrow is shopping and then in the afternoon we take the coach to Beauxbatons."

That was the first and most important rule they learn. Don't tell anyone about the magical world, not even your family. You are part of it, they aren't.

It was a strict rule as they soon learned; even their letters home were proofread by some of the older muggleborn students, to make sure that they never mention anything they shouldn't. It had cut many letters home very short, because what do you talk about, when most of the things you see and learn are off limit? They couldn't even take home most of their processions in the holidays. No books, no brooms, no potions or anything but your wand. And that one you had to hide.

From what Lily read here, Britain was lot more open about these things. Muggleborn could pretty much tell their families everything and there wasn't even a clear rule how far this rule extended. Were grandparents and uncles and aunts and cosines close family? It seemed messy to Lily.

And she wasn't really sure how she would act on these new laws. After five years living in magical France and under those rules, the idea of now telling them everything seemed frightening. To her parents, magic was something very small and minor, even in her education. Like party tricks. To them magic was something some people had, but didn't influence their lives much. How do you go from that to explaining everything? That there was a magical community, people that didn't even know what electricity was. That she had other subjects than math, science, Latin and so on. Subjects like charms, transfiguration, potions, Defense against the Dark Arts. That there were Dark Arts. That there was a civil war it the moment going on in Britain, against people like her. That that was the reason, why Lily had been so against it, to move back to England.

England, for Merlin and Morgana's sake England. Blood England. Mudbloody England.

It was the most terrible idea her parents ever had and she had no means to explain it to them. She had argued and cried and begged and screamed and everything she could think of aside from telling them what was going on in the magic world. But they couldn't understand. They thought it was her fear to lose the friends she had finally made in second year and was afraid that she would be friendless once again. As if she cared about friends in Britain. Either they were purebloods that could very well fight for that lunatic Voldemort or they were muggleborn and doomed to be hunted down by said lunatic and could be killed any day or half-bloods for whom both could be true at the same time.

At one point Lily noticed at she had stared at the same page for ten minutes or more. She marked the page and closed the book. Her cat Artemis hissed in her transport box. She hated that thing on a good day, but with the rocking boat she absolutely despised it. Some of the other passengers looked at them strange when Lily tried to calm the cat down.

"I know Arty, I hate boats as well. I swear next time we will just fly back and forth." Lily tried to push a piece of ham inside, but Arty wasn't up for bribery and slashed out for her hand. Her sharp claws hit one of Lily's fingers, who screamed for a moment and put the bleeding finger in her mouth. "Fine, be a hungry bitch." She had got Artemis in the summer between her first and second year, when her parents were worried because Lily hadn't made friends in her new school.

She was alone on the boat. The rest of her family already went to England two weeks ago. Her parents had let her stay a bit longer in France to celebrate the birthday of her best friend one last time. Her parents had never met her real best friends from school, apart from one, another muggleborn. The others were pure- or halfbloods and the laws were very firm about introducing the muggle families to anyone magical community. Don't.

With a smile she remembered how she first got into the marvelous group. Until then she had been a bit of a loner, because her terrible French pronunciation made her a laughing stock for the other students, she could only really talk with the teachers, who would place a translation spell on her before each class. It wasn't a surprise that she became a teacher's pet and one that was excellent in magic. She learned to read French from her books, but talking was different.

But then came her second year, she had learned to better speak French with Petunia and even took her advice not to just take everything, but to fight back. So when a fifth year student had made fun of her, called her a mudblood and hex Artemis her new little kitten her parents had just got her a few weeks ago, something snapped in her. She was an excellent witch and her red-hot anger fueled the hexes she threw his way. If she remembered correctly he had ended with too big hands to hold his wand, a mouth full of mud and over a week in the sickbay. For the longest time everybody had been quiet and Lily had turned around and stormed off in a dramatic fashion. That night at dinner Bellevie, the most glorious quarter veela that Lily ever seen, came up to her table. She was already in forth year and Lily had never talked to her before. A couple of her friends followed her. She was the uncrowned queen of Beauxbatons and her friends were her noble ladies in waiting.

"Hey, we heard what you did to Dubios this afternoon. They say, you hexed him into next week." Bellevie's voice was like a lovely song and when she threw her silky golden hair over her shoulder even Lily had to sigh, before shaking her awe off. Her eyes glided to her friends behind her. They were all out of the magic community, either pureblood or halfbloods that grew up in the magical world. Were they here to revenge that bastard? They were six and five of them were in a higher year then her. Lily grabbed her wand under the table.

"Yeah, I did." She pushed her chin forward in false bravo. Lily went through a couple of spells she could use, but six against one would be impossible, but they were in the dinner hall, there were teachers around, surely they wouldn't try to attack her here.

"Good. You see, a second year hexing a fifth year must be really cool. And we" She gestured to her friend and herself. "Are cool. So we decided you are now our friend. And you maybe don't know this, but we don't sit here to eat, but at that table there." She pointed at a table everybody knew was their table. "So get your stuff and sit with us." None of what she said in her beautiful voice was a request or even an offer. Bellevie was just informing Lily about her new reality, but it didn't matter to Lily. The coolest and most popular girls had told her they wanted to be her friends and Lily, friendless girl she had been, accepted without a second thought.

"Of course." She picked up her bag and hurried to stand up. "Thank you."

"It's fine." Bellevie pulled Lily next to her and the other friends swamped around them. "What are you wearing by the way? That is not cool enough." She mustered Lily with a critical look and Lily felt self-conscious about her clothes. It was true that the other girls all wore designer clothes and she well didn't. "Don't worry about it. I have a squip uncle who works as a model and a designer. I will write him that he has to send us some clothes for you. He makes clothes that are muggle-friendly, stylish and with hidden pockets for your wand. Until then you can borrow something from us." That day Lily learned something about Bellevie, she had an interesting relationship with reality. Reality was something that happened around her and that she could dictate how she pleased. It was her very own, very unique magic. "What's your name by the way?"

"Lily, Lily Evans."

"Lily." Her name sounded like a poem spoken by her voice. "Like the flower. That's a good name." For a moment Lily wondered what would have happened if Bellevie hadn't liked her name. She found out a year later when their new friend Vulgan, got the name Viola.

Now some would argue that those girl were airheads and superficial and Lily would agree with you, but that didn't mean that they weren't kind and funny and smart and loyal and generous and the best friends Lily could ever wish for. Leaving them behind hurt. Even if a couple of them already left school and she wouldn't see them in Beauxbatons anyway, like Bellevie. But it hurt and she had hugged them close and in tears when she left.

She had been the one to teach them all they knew about muggles and they had found it cute. And they made sure that Lily knew everyone in the French magic world that was important. She was their brain and nerd and they adored her for it. Soon little firehead Lily was walking around with them, was part of them and wore clothes she knew her parents couldn't afford. Sure Bellevie and the others were generous with her and didn't think twice about giving her the clothes they grew out off or in Bellevie's case already wore more than five times, but you didn't want to be a charity case to your friends and so Lily made sure to earn money, by renting out her brain and becoming The Nerd.

Borrowing a homework from her: each half hour a sickle per person

Tutoring for an hour with one to five students: five galleons

Letting Lily write a homework for you: five galleon per feet

Breaking the anti-cheat charm for an exam: three hundred galleons

Not that the last one was really known to anyone. For good reason as you could imagine. Lily praised herself never being forced to use that one for herself. Arguable she just found a way for that last year and had only done it for one student and yes you guess right, Bellevie.

It was easy to hide her new clothes from her parents, she was hiding most of her life from them, but they of course noticed that she was taking more care in how she dressed, but to them it was just a sign that she grew up. Petunia was a bit more skeptical, but then Petunia had always been the one most skeptical about Lily's development. Lily had of course told her about her new friends, as much as she could and Petunia had seem conflicted at first, but when it became clear that none of them would visit any time soon she didn't really care.

She was interrupted in her pondering when a voice announced that they would arrive in England in fifteen minutes and that everybody should make sure to take all their belongings with them and return to their cars. Lily had her handbag around her shoulder and lifted Artemis' box and her suitcase. It was strange to walk around with it. In it was her whole magical life, from her robes, to her books and cauldrons, ever magical trinket and quill, along with her designer clothes and shoes, ever moving photograph with her friends, the old broom of Marie-Claire that she didn't need any more when she got a new one. Everything her family was never part of was in that suitcase and for the first time ever did she bring the magic home with her. For dramatic reasons she should describe it as heavy, but it wasn't it was thanks to a charm on the handle weightless to her and only her. She checked herself in one of the car mirrors as she walked past them and made sure that her red hair didn't look to wild from the wind. Her mum always fused about that.

The ferry landed with a shock at the pier and Lily nearly lost her balance for a moment. Once the bar was lifted dozens of cars left the boat. There were not many people that arrived in England without a car. Next to her only an elder couple and nervous young man were one the ferry without a car. The couple was friendly and asked her if she needed help, a young girl like her traveling alone to another country. They spook with her in French and Lily assured them that her parents would wait for her at the pier. The young man didn't talk to anyone and held his backpack close to him. When Lily went past him she noticed the sweet smell of weed on him. She decided to ignore him.

Finally back on land she looked around and could spot her parents easily. Her mother was waving her red scarf around to make sure that Lily saw them. With a smile she hurried over to them and hugged first her mum and then her dad close.

"I missed you, mamma and dada." She felt herself tear up for a moment and relieve washed over them. Nothing happened to them while they were in Britain without her. No death eater or worst had attacked them the moment they arrived here without magical protection. She half expected for one of them to jump out right now when she sat her feet on British soil, but nothing happened.

"We missed you too, Tiger-Lily. Welcome back from Neverland." She rolled her eyes at the childish nickname her mother gave her when they learned about Lily's magic. The whole thing must have been as surreal as Peter Pan to them.

"Hey sweety." Her father took her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. "How was it with your friends?" He had been the one to allow her to stay in France when her mum wanted her to come back to England immediately. He had always been the most understanding one in her family, or at least he tried. "What do you have behind your ear there?" He touched her behind the ear and produced a shining coin for her. She smiled as she took it from him. He had taken up the hobby as a muggle magician after she had got her letter. Probably to make Lily feel more connected and at home with her family, or he had wanted to feel closer to Lily's life. Of course it was a long way from any of the magic she learned at school, but it still bonded them together. There were few things Lily loved so much about home as when her father was doing some kind of magic trick at a dinner party and then winked at her after it or introducing her as his assistant.

"Let's go home and I cook your favorite for you." Her mum shooed her to their car. Before her dad could reach for her suitcase, she pressed Artemis' box into his hands.

"She had not been very happy with me for forcing her on a boat."

Once they were in the car, her mum started to fill her in on everything, while dad drove in silence.

"The house is lovely, but the garden is a bit wild. We will have to take care of that soon. It's not as big as the old garden, but we are now back in England. It's not like you can spend that many evenings out anyway."

"That's nice, mum."

"Oh and we have lovely neighbors. They live in this huge posh manor, but are very nice and down to earth. Well I didn't have much chance to talk to him, but she is really sweet. On our first day here she came over with cookies. They have a son in around your age. Petunia is already friends with him and his friends. Really nice and polite young men. I'm sure Petunia is going to introduce you to them." She looked at Lily through the rear-view mirror. "They are quite handsome."

Lily rolled her eyes and didn't say anything to that. Her mum was very traditional about relationships and made it her job to set her up with nice boys whenever she had the chance. She believed that a woman's place was at her husband's side and that she should focus on bringing up the children. That idea never appealed to Lily at all and because of that she never was really interested in the boys her mum introduced her to. Never mind that she wasn't too keen on hidden most of her life from a potential boyfriend. The laws in France didn't make a relationship between muggle and magic folk easy and she had yet to meet a couple, where it didn't end in a divorce. Maybe apart from whatever dysfunctional relationship Severus' parents had back then. Lily only half listened to her mother by now.

Without a reaction of Lily her mum continued to tell her about the virtues of those fine young men. "You could go out with them and Petty."

"I don't know mum. I will have to do a lot of catch up before going to the new school. I will most likely spend most of my summer in my room to study." She sighed deeply with those words. That wasn't of course true. But she planned on earning a bit of money over her holidays, by writing the summer homework for some people at Beauxbatons. The other thing she hoped to achieve with this was that her parents would maybe feel guilty enough to let her finish school on France, you never know until you try.

If her mum felt any guilt she didn't show it. "Well then you will meet them in two week when they invited us over to a garden party."

"Who?"

"The new neighbors, the Potters."

* * *

A.N. And now we meet Lily. She had different friends and experienced the magical world under much strikter rules. She is of course very worried about the war in Britain, probably more than if she had grew up in England all the time. In that case all of it would be normal to her, that people go missing or are killed. It would just be part of growing up to her. But this Lily just moved into a war zone. You get a different perspective and risk assessment because of that.

Please tell me what you think and leave a review.


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Petunia and Lily were sisters. That sounds stupid, because that should be obvious by now. But they were nothing more and less. There were days when they went to the swimming pool together and days when they screamed or ignored each other. They had once been friends and it still hurts from time to time that they weren't anymore. Before magic. The idea that her stuck-up sister could go out with some rich dude let Lily smile. One day they could come to passive aggressive battles at Christmas who wore the better and more exclusive dress that night, between them. It would be a very sisterly thing to do.

Petunia and Lily looked nothing alike. Petunia had the beauty of a runway model, with her tall statue and long arms and legs, her lean runners body and honey blond hair with sky blue eyes. Even if you could argue that her neck was a bit long. Lily had a different kind of beauty. She was more on the short side and had an hourglass figure. Her deep red hair and brilliant green eyes demanded your attention. But of course there were some similarities in those sisters if you look for them. They both had just the thinnest hint of dimples on their cheeks when they smiled and both had high cheekbones and a set of elegant eyebrows that enable both of them to pull off an impressive bitchface. The Evans girls could not only passive aggressively talk to you, they could passive aggressively listen to you. With just the raise of an eyebrow they could make you feel stupid for the things you say.

True to her word, Lily spent a lot of time in her room. Whenever she opened her suitcase she made sure that the door was locked. Magic and everything surrounding it felt more like a dirty little secret than ever. In the past it was always just something that her family was not part of, but now she was hiding it from them. Not only the wand that she had never shown her parents, or Petunia, but everything every book, every photo, every story. All hidden away like a dirty mistress. She had seen Petunia's friends a couple of times. They were devilish good looking or at least most of them. Peter wasn't really ugly per se, but next to his friends he was like a candle next to a campfire. Petunia had let Lily even know that she had her eyes on one of the dark haired boys. If Lily remembered correctly James or Sirius. Lily rolled her eyes at that, because they were clearly the best looking once from the four, but Lily couldn't really held that against her sister, if the roles had been reversed she would have done the same thing.

The first time she met some of the boys had been on a Friday morning. Lily had slept in and enjoyed a well deserved first morning coffee at 11am. She was still in her pajamas, some huge gray shirt and loose cotton pants, when someone started to ring the bloody door bell like a maniac.

"Coming, coming!" She shouted towards the door and took her coffee with her. She pulled the door open with more force than necessary and stared at two boys that despise the open door rung one more time. "What the hell do you want?"

She had to admit the two boys looked handsome. They were the tall, dark and handsome types. The slightly shorter one had chin long black hair and a face that looked like an art work. The other one had messy black hair and warm brown eyes behind a pair of glasses. He had a nice tan, Lily noticed with a hint of jealousy, but to be fair a Whitbread would look tan next to her. Her skin had two color options, translucent white or angry sunburn red. The sun-resistance potion was one of the two potions she always broke the strict French laws for, no that she let her family know. But enough with the self-pity about the unfairness of melanin distribution. They turned around to her and had a so sheepish look on their faces, Lily half expected them to say 'baa'. They had a boyish charm about them, but Lily couldn't cherish it because of the spectacle they had made so shortly after she woke up.

"Ehm, eh, hi." The one with the glasses began. "We are James and Sirius."

She took a sip of her coffee and stared at them dispassionate.

"We are friends of Petty, who lives here you know." Why did glass-boy, James sound so nervous?

"What she lives here as well? Must be part of the other family that moved in here…" They didn't seem to pick up on her obvious sarcasm immediately and exchanged a confused look, before glasses boy (James right?) asked in an unsure voice.

"That was a joke right?"

"Yes it was…" Lily rolled her eyes at them.

"So you are?"

"Lily, Petunia's sister…"

"I would have never guessed that." He looked as shocked as most did when they were told that the Evans sisters were exactly that. "Eh, could you call her?"

She rolled her eyes once more before turning around and shouted as loud as she could. "TUNEY! Your friends are at the d-" She stopped in the middle of her sentence when the other boy, Sirius rand the door bell once again. She turned around slowly. "Listen, ring that freaking bell one more time and I will throw this mug of hot coffee in your face." She looked him dead in the eyes as she told him this. "And that is not a joke."

Before anyone could say anything more Petunia hurried down the stairs. She looked good in her new mini-skirt and tight tank top. Lily envied her a little that she could wear something like this. If she tried she would look like a hooker, whose boobs try to fall out of her top.

"Ah sorry boys. We can go." Petunia was always so bloody cheerful when she tried to impress cute boys. But before she left she pulled Lily to the side and whispered to her in French. "How the hell do you look? What's wrong with you that you would open the door like this?"

"Well, I didn't see you sprinting down that stair when they tried to play Beethoven's freakin-' 5th on our bloody door bell." Lily hissed back.

"Oh grow up already. And put some real clothes on. It is noon." With that she turned away from Lily and to the boys. Sirius was watching them with interest. "Are you ready to go? Perfect!" She linked her arms with both of them and went off. Lily banged the door close behind them. She could hear they muffed voices through the door.

"What's up with her?"

"Oh she is not much of a morning person and in the summer break morning is to her whenever she decides to get up…"

Lily went back into the kitchen, when the stupid-ass-freaking-cursed door bell rung again. She when back and saw the boy, Sirius sprinting away and threw an arrogant smirk at her way. The fact that he looked at her actual allowed him avoid being hit by the fly coffee mug that sailed towards him. It shattered with a loud bang behind him.

"LILY!" Petunia shrieked and looked at her in shock and anger.

"What the hell?! Your sister is crazy!" The destroyer of her morning relaxation shouted those words in a satisfying high pitched shrill.

The other boy bent over with laughter and gasped for air. "Well she did warn you, Pads."

Lily threw the door close again. Now she needed a new coffee. You see, as first meeting go, this one could have been better.

The second meeting with them went a lot better. At least there were no flying dishes involved and that should count for something. Lily was arguable not in the best mood when their parents ordered Petunia to take Lily along for the day, just in nicer words. She got a letter informing her that she would get her O.W.L. results later, because of their move to England.

The suggestion of their parents to go out with Tuney and her friends wasn't really received with much euphemism by either of the sisters. But not even half an hours of arguing could change their minds. Lily had a look at Petunia's unhappy face and an idea stuck her. She actual had something better to do and for that she needed a bit of alone time for a whole day. She hurried upstairs and packed her extendable handbag with some clothes and galleons. She didn't have to pack her wand, because she was in bloody Britain, where a group of lunatic wankers were running around killing people like her. She was never without her wand. She even took it with her into the shower. It was of course always hidden, apart of course when she was in the shower. There were very limited ways to hide a wand there. There it just lay next to the shampoo bottle.

She ran downstairs where Petunia was still arguing and pulled her along towards the door.

"Come on, Tuney, it will be fun." She said with a bright smile. Of course her sister fought against her grip and threw her an angry look.

"I'm not going with you!"

"It's not like we get out of it so let us make the best out of it." Lily tried to give her a meaningful look. Her big sister didn't understand immediately and they had a conversation in pursed lips, meaningful stares and wiggled eyebrows and head jerking. Petunia looked like she had bitten on the world's sourest lemon ever before she agreed with an astonishing fake smile.

"Ok, let me grab my handbag."

Within one minute they were out of the door. Their parents stood in the door and both sisters waved to them with an identical smile. At the fence gate four guys waited for them. Lily suspected that they heard the screaming match and decided to stay away for now. That was actual a lot more sensible that what she had expected from the two guys she met a couple of day ago.

The one with the glasses, James, grinned at her when they arrived next to them.

"See who the cat dragged in." He threw an arm around her shoulders. "Are we so irresistible that you want to track along?" She shrugged his arm off.

"Yes, that is my little sister Lily." Both sisters look behind them where they parents were still watching them. "She is coming with us today." She said those words with the world stiffest smile.

Sirius howled in a theatrical way and hid behind one of the guys she didn't knew yet. He was a tall (nearly everyone was tall compared to Lily, but that was beside the point) guy with sandy blond hair and kind amber colored eye. He had a scar right over his left eyebrow and Lily had to admit that she was a sucker for those. In her opinion a scar or two could give a handsome man's look this bit of character that made them interesting.

"Noooo." He complained loudly and waved a finger in her direction over the newcomers shoulder. "Moony, protect me! She is a master in weaponized dishware!"

The guy looked over his shoulder with a deadpan look and answered his accusation in a quiet voice. "Sirius, I know you for over five year now and it is my profound opinion that you didn't have been attacked with any kind of dishware nearly as often as you deserve." He shrugged his friend of and took a step closer to her. "I'm Remus Lupin, it's nice to meet you." He had a sweet smile and it made Lily smile in return. Not a sarcastic one, but a true and honest one.

"Lily Evans. It's nice to meet you as well."

"Prongs! Moony is mean to me!" Sirius complained again. "And why did he get a smile and I only get a coffee mug thrown at my head?" He fast found a new shoulder to lean on that of his friend James or Prongs? Whatever. He broke the nice moment she had with Remus with his whining and both Remus and her looked over to the two boys. James had a strange dazed look on his face, before he shook his head and answered.

"Well, because Moony here is a ladies' man that can wrap them around his little finger in no time, obviously. Sly dog that he is." His tone suggested that he was mocking his friend. Remus rolling his eyes only supported this theory

"Hey! I'm a sly dog." Sirius continued to complain.

"No you are a dumb mutt." James bickered back.

"Well I would describe Remus more as a sly wolf." The last one in the group added to their conversation. Lily could honestly say that she hadn't back him any mind until this moment and completely forgot that he was there as well. He was shorter than the rest of his friends and while describing him as ugly would be mean, he had a soft chin and upturned nose, that it made his face look very pointy.

Remus rolled his eyes at his friends' antics and pushed them into motion. "Stop it you dumbheads and start moving." He turned to her and invited her along with a kind smile. How could she say no? Petunia linked her arms again with both James and Sirius and walked in the front. Remus, the other boy whose name Lily didn't catch yet and Lily walked behind them.

They walked down the street and part of the next and Remus and Lily talked with each other for the whole time. He was funny, insightful and clever. She didn't give the other boys much mind, even if she saw James throw them disapproval looks from over his shoulder from time to time. They had walked for maybe ten, fifteen minutes, before Petunia turned around abruptly.

"So what's your plan, Lily?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest. All three of them that walked in the back nearly crashed into her.

"Mer-de! Petunia, watch out!" Lily managed to catch the Merlin that wanted to slip and turned it into the French curse merde. "What is it?"

"Your plan? You had one right?" Was she kidding her? Lily just was in the middle of a brilliant conversation with a really handsome boy and she wanted her to leave. The boys looked confused. "So what's your plan?"

Lily wanted to tell her to shove it, but stopped herself. She really had other worries she should concentrate on than cute muggle boys. Like finding out a bit more about the magical community here. It was dangerous and stupid, but the best way she had was to go there and get some firsthand information. She had been to the Diagon Ally once before with her friends in the summer holidays two year ago. She sent one last gaze at Remus before answering.

"Yes. So that's the plan. I have to go to London for the day. You guys are hanging out all day right? So we'll meet today evening and just tell mum and dad that I was with you the whole time." She didn't look at Remus, because it would make it harder.

"What do you want to do in London?" If anyone other than Remus had asked she would have told them to get lost.

"I'm meeting a friend there." She answered without missing a beat.

"What friend?" Petunia looked at her with confusion and Lily looked at her with raised eyebrows in return. It took a moment before realization flashed through her eyes. "You mean your _strange_ friend?"

Lily rolled her eyes but answered her anyway. "Yes my strange friend." Before anyone could asked any more questions about that friend of her she changed the subject. "So can you guys show me were the train station or bus station to London is?" She looked at the boys with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course I know were those stations are. I mean I lived my whole life in this town and there is no way that I didn't know all the convenient ways of transportation around here." James rambled on without saying much. It was Remus that stood next to her and shook his head before pulling her along gently.

"Come, Lily, I will show you the way." Remus leaded the way and James mumbled something under his breath that Lily couldn't understand. A moment later he sprinted next to her other side.

"So Lily-Silly-"

"Excuse me?" He didn't paid her indignation any mind and continued as if she hadn't said a thing,

"-so we should let our new, innocent, young neighbor girl just go off to the big city to meet a strange friend? Moony, can we, as responsible young men allow this?" He threw an arm around her shoulders pulling her close to his body. She could feel some hard muscles under his shirt.

"Prongs…" Remus sounded designated at his friend's antics.

"So young lady tell us something about this friend? Is he a boy or girl? And what is your relationship with him? And why don't you want to tell your parents about meeting him?" His grin could have been charming if not for his patronizing voice and words.

"That is none of your business." With skills that only having a sibling or martial arts could teach you, she grabbed his hand that lay on her shoulder and turned out of his touch and twisted his arm behind his back. "And I don't remember giving you permission to touch me."

"LILY!" Petunia sounded so scandalized and angry that Lily could not help but smile, before letting him go again. Petunia's face turned white and red spots appeared on her forehead and cheeks.

For a moment nobody else said anything. Remus and Peter looked at her in shock and didn't seem sure what to do. James stared at her with an open mouth and rubbed his shoulder. It was strange, she had expected him to become angry, but he just stared at her wide-eyed.

It was Sirius that first said anything. "She is an expert in close combat as well! And here I thought about paying her a mug so she wouldn't be defenseless in the big city." He laughed for some time before overdramatically whip away a fake tear. "Look at that. Your little girl grew up so fast."

This provoked James to start chuckling and with that broke the spell and all four boys began to laugh out loud.

"See Prongs, that's what you get when you try to talk up Moony's girl." Peter added to the joke and it made everyone fell back into laughers. They had an infectious laughter and Lily caught herself grinning along against her will. James stood in the middle of his friends and for just a moment stopped laughing. He met Lily's eyes and when he saw her grinning, he grinned right back. Strange guys.

Petunia huffed and walked past everybody only to pull her along. "I think, we still have to drop of my little sister."

Fifteen minutes later they were at the train station and the next train would leave in ten minutes. The other once dropped her off at the gate and they had a last minute discussion over the plan.

"Lily, you will be back here at 7 p.m. Got that?" Her big sister always had this tone in her voice that made Lily think that she would make a marvelous teacher one day.

"Yes, Petunia."

"So what is the story we tell if anyone asked what we have been up to today?" Peter asked while they waited with her. He seemed to care the most about what the adults would think if they were caught. But it probably wasn't the worst idea to set the story straight now.

"Just say whatever you guy will do and tell them I tracked along was quiet most of the time."

Her train arrived and she got into the door when Sirius shouted after her. "I know you for less than an hour, but even I can tell the story that you stay quiet for a whole day seems unrealistic!" She rolled her eyes and found herself a seat.

Once she was in London she went to a small café ordered a tea and changed on the toilet. Don't mistake she is always dressed just fine. But the difference between the muggle and wizard world was too great in herself that she couldn't even think about not changing into a purple silk blouse, high heels and a cute summer hat. Once she was done she went on the hunt for that pub that led to the Diagon Ally. Once she found it she put on her sunglasses. The nice expensive big ones that hide enough of her face to make her look five year older.

The whole time she was there she put on her strongest French accent and pretended to be visiting for now. She couldn't trust anyone here. It was like someone was pressing down on her chest. What she needed was information. She had spent the two weeks in France doing little else, but to look up everything she could find about the British Wizard World, but it just wasn't enough. Information about who was who in this part of the world, who was on what side, who to trust, what was happening in the community. Most of her day was spend in a small reading café that offered twenty five years of the _Daily Prophet_. Her sandwich was only half eaten because she lost her appetite the longer she read. She had hoped for some answers, but it was like trying to find your way in a muddy swamp with a thick fog around you. There were some family names that apparently were red flags, but then there were all those scandalized stories about someone of a good family falling in with that Deatheater crowd and the stories that felt like someone punched her in the guts. _Imperio_ , they made people do stuff under _Imperio_. Even if Lily could somehow manage to protect her family from every single witch and wizard out there. How could she ever protect them from- from, it was difficult to even think it, from _herself_.

It got later in the afternoon, she put down the newspapers and paid for her table. She looked around the lively little magic street. It reminded her so much of the firdt time stepping into the magical world back in France. She looked through the shops. It was her responsibility to protect them and she didn't know how. In the end she bought some protection runes and same trinkets that she could hopefully turn into emergency portkeys for her family.

When she sat in the train back home it started to rain. Of course it started to rain, she was in bloody Britain and she only hoped that it wouldn't be her family's blood that would turn it even bloodier. When the train stopped she had changed back into her black tank top and sneakers and forced herself to smile at the antics of the four boys that waited with Petunia for her. Apparently they had gone to the cinema and accounting to Tuney, they boys were the noisiest movie goers ever. And Lily had to grin for real at imagining how Petunia sat between the guys and shrunk into her seat when the four boys around her shouted at the characters to do something different. She still looked embarrassed when they told her about it.

The boys walked them home, naturally, because the Potter manor was further up the road. They said the goodbyes and when Petunia and Lily walked down the path to the front door, they heard James shout for them to wait. He ran up to them when they stopped and both raised an eyebrow as a silent question.

"Now you can see that you are sisters!" He grinned at them and his glasses hung crooked on his nose from his sprint. He gave them a small smile that made his hazel eyes dance. "I wanted, I mean, we wanted to ask Lily if you want to come along tomorrow as well. And maybe you wouldn't be as quiet this time." He winked at her. Both sisters raised the other eyebrow. "I mean, Remus is always complaining that he needs someone to talk to or his brain cells would die from spending so much time with us."

It was kind of adorable, Lily had to admit that, but before she answered she shot a sideway glance at Petunia. Those were her friends, she didn't want to butt in. "I'm not sure, I have a lot to do for school and stuff…" Lily had the feeling that Petunia had been very annoyed by the fact that Lily tracked along with her new friends.

"It's fine. I will make sure that she gets out of her room for a couple of hours." Petunia answered for her. "Tell Remus, that we will save his brain cells."

* * *

A.N. Lily and James met, hooray! But Lily has her mind still more on the war than anything else. I hope you can see the first signs of attraction between them, even if they didn't really noticed yet.

Disclaimer: Nothing of Harry Potter is mine and I don't make money with this story.

Beta reader: I'm still looking for one. So if anybody would like to help me with this story and has the time to do so, I would be very grateful.

Please leave a review to tell me what you thing about my ideas. Can you spot those hints about the boys pureblood heritage that are in the chapter?


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The four marauders sat in front of the fireplace or better slouched in the sofas.

"I'm stuffed." Sirius was slowly petting his own stomach. "I don't think I will ever eat anything again."

"I bet one galleon that he is going to eat something in the next fifteen minutes." Remus replied, while lifting an arm and let it fall down again like a sack of beans.

"Only a sucker would take that bet." Peter said at the same time as Sirius cried. "You are so on Moony!"

Dinner was always a grant affair at the Potter house. Their house elf Minx was a three times cooking champion and was one of the best house elf cooks in the last decants. But dinner normally left the boys in food coma afterwards for an hour or two. It was a miracle that the Potter household wasn't rolling everywhere.

"How are my favorite boys?" Mrs. Potter stepped into the living room with a plate of chocolate cookies and tried to flatten James' hair in passing.

"Mum!" He battled her hand away and tried to ruffle it up just right again. Not that anyone who wasn't a Potter could ever see a difference.

She shook her head at him and sat down in an armchair. "So how was your day? You were out with the Evans' girls right? I met Daisy earlier and she told me that Petunia managed to get her little sister out of her room. Tell me, is she as much a darling as Petunia?" His mum adored Petunia. It was no secret that Euphemia Potter would have loved to have a daughter; a sweet and kind well mannered little girl and it was no secret either that she hoped to find this daughter one day in a daughter-in-law. To be fair she had liked all of James' ex-girlfriend that he had introduced at home. Apparently James had learned from his mother how the ideal girl should be like and according to Peter that was the reason why is relationship always ended after a one or two months.

"You look for a girl that fits your mum's taste and confuse it with your own. That's why you get bored after a few weeks and then try to hang in the relationship for a bit longer to save it or something, before you admit defeat and look for the next girl. You find them nice and pretty and confuse that with a crush or any deeper feelings." Peter had told him once after he broke up with another girlfriend and complained about never finding the right one. Peter hadn't even looked up from his homework back then. The other three marauders had stared at him in shock, before Remus and Sirius wholehearted agreed with him. That was the thing with Peter, sometimes he said things about people, knew things about people. He was always the first to know if somebody had a crush and what would set who off. Maybe he was just the best listener out of all of them or his good divination grades weren't just a sign that he was great in making things up.

James shook his head back to present. He, of course, didn't agree with Peter's opinion about his girlfriends and answered his mother. "Eh, yeah we met her, but she was very quiet." He looked at the other boys for help. They had only met her for maybe an hour in total, to the way to the train station and back.

"Oh was she shy?" She clapped her hands in delight. Shyness was one of the things Mrs. Potter liked in girls.

"No, no not really." Sirius corrected her. "Shy wouldn't be the word I would use to describe her." Sirius had a wide grin on his face as he broke a piece of a cookie off and put it in his mouth. Mrs. Potter raised an eyebrow at them and her curious look made clear that she wanted to hear more. "Moony, my boy." Sirius continued. "You spook the most with her. Tell us how she is!"

Remus shot him a dark glare before answering. "Clever and eh confident." When Mrs. Potter wasn't looking at him he looked at the rest with wide help seeking eyes. "Eh, but she seemed a bit distracted, by some school work. That's why she wasn't talking much." He didn't appreciate the fact that he had to lie them out of the situation. That was Sirius and James' job!

"That sounds a bit rude…" Being rude was probably one of the worst thing a girl could be in Mrs. Potter's eyes, right after being a psychopathic serial killer, but it was a close race. The boys all had to suppress a grin at her frown. "Well, Daisy said that they sometimes don't know what to do with their youngest." She sighed deeply. "A shame really."

"But tomorrow we will see her again. Petunia said she wants to bring her along tomorrow as well. Maybe we can get to know her then."

"Hmm, maybe…" She didn't look convinced, but there was not much she could do about it. "If I was them I would have probably called her back from her boarding school, but I guess every parent is blind to their child's flaws." With that she smiled at them and got up again, trying to tame James' hair once more without any success.

Once the boys were alone again, they fell back into a more comfortable position.

The meetings with Lily Evans were strange. She was absolutely not his type of girl. Sure James thought that she was funny when she got temperamental and he was curious about her and you would have to be blind not to see that she was pretty and when she turned his arm onto his back today it was strangely exciting. But it was a curiosity for the unknown, for a muggle girl. Petunia was much more his type. James told himself, so why did it felt like somebody punched him in the guts at Remus next words?

"By the way, dibs." He said it in his normal calm voice and for a moment everyone around him was confused.

"On what?" Sirius looked around the room in confusion before looking at Remus and seeing a shy smile on his face. Sirius whole face lit up like some overachieving Christmas decoration. His jaw hung wide open. His deep blue eyes were wide and he put on a mask of shock, or maybe it was real shock. James for sure felt shocked. "Did Remus Lupin just call dibs on a girl for the very first time?" He threw up his hands in a dramatic fashion. "The Remus Lupin that always rolls his eyes when Prongsie and I do that?" Sirius' outrage was of course fake, but James felt real anger that he couldn't place. Remus was the one that always said it was disrespectful and chauvinistic towards the girls. He was so lost in thought that he only noticed that Sirius got up when he felt him hang on his shoulder. "Prongsie, they grow up so fast." He grabbed one of James' hands and held it with a proud smile.

Remus had the grace to blush and stutter some mumbled sentences about how he would be honest with her and tell her that it's only for the summer and more anger built up in James. So Remus just wanted to turn her into his muggle summer fling? What a hypocrite! Then James remembered that he planned to do the same thing with her sister and hat it really made no sense at all to be angry with Remus about something like this. He shook his head and joined Sirius in railing up their werewolf friend.

"I think, this calls for a repetition of the Dibs Rules. Sirius if you would like to start." James pointed with both hands at Sirius and gave a small clap when he stood up and puffed his chest to look important. "Now hear the wisdom of the Seven Rules of Dibs Calling!" He made a dramatic pause and Remus buried his face in his hands and mumbled some unintelligible things under his breath. "Rule number one: A Marauder can call dibs on one girl at a time. He is then free to pursue her and he has the support of his following Marauders."

Peter stood up next to Sirius and continued. "Rule number two: When he does the other Marauders back off. No hitting on another Marauder's girl!"

James joined his friend in front of Remus and all three looked down at the sitting boy. "Rule number three: The other Marauders have to be friendly to the dibs girl. But are allowed to tell the dibs holder if she is crazy."

They started once again with Sirius. "Rule number four: If two Marauders call dibs at the same time, both can go for it, but in a fair way. Bros before hoes. No girl is worth losing a friend."

"Rule number five: A dibs only end when the dibs holder ends it or the other three Marauders vote it off, because of craziness." Peter nodded along with his words.

"Rule number six: Once a girl was dibed on and it ended all Marauders stay away from her and no other Marauder can call dibs on her again." James had to grin at Remus discomfort.

"Rule number seven: Six rules are stupid. We need a 7th rule!" Sirius finished in a dramatic display of overacting.

"Tossers! The whole lot of you." Was Remus only answer to their performance. Pretty ungrateful if you ask them. "And Padfoot, pay up!" He held a hand out to Sirius

"What? Why?" The young man cried out.

"For eating."

"I didn't eat. When did I eat something?"

"The cookie."

"That wasn't eating! That was only a crumple, I didn't even screw!" He shouted out in his defense. "That was only a sign of gratitude and my good manners, to show that we appraise the thought of bringing us something!"

"That so counts, now pay up."

"Prongsie, Wormy? Help me out here."

Peter and James exchanged a look and nodded to each other. "It counts. You have to pay."

"You are only on his side because he let you copy his homework!" Sirius complained, but he dug into his pocket and produced the money.

"Or you're just a sucker." Remus replied and put the money away.

* * *

A.N. This is a short chapter about the Marauders. I hope you like it. I don't like the idea that Peter was only an appendix to the Marauders so I gave him his own role in the group. As the people person. He gets people and understands their moods and feelings very well. He just doesn't know how to act on this knowledge. That's the job of the other boys. He is always a bit invisible next to James and Sirius and his talents are not so obvious as the ones of the others. That's why he is lacking confident in himself, when he compares himself with his friends.

Ironically, that's why he in the end betrayed his friends, (He is the most sensitive of the group and experienced the hopeless of their fight the most. He was the first to see that maybe even some of their leaders got tied of the fight and that the mood in the magical community was shifting.) and why he was able to shift the suspicion who the traitor to Remus (He is the one that gets people the most. So when he got wary of the werewolf, maybe he was up to something.)

I would be thankful for any review and help you can offer me to get better.

I would like to thank my reviewers as well. Reading your kind words is always a motivation to write more. Thank you.

And once again, if there is someone who is willing to beta read for my, I would be very grateful.


	6. Chapter Five

And true to her word, Petunia dragged her out of her room the next day. She had been the in middle of writing an essay for an old classmate.

"Oh shut up. The boys liked you for some reason." Petunia rolled her eyes. "So you will come along today."

"What are you guys even doing today?" Maybe it was something she could talk herself out off.

"Nothing sure yet…" Tuney told her, before biting her lip. "Maybe we would play a bit footsie?"

Damn, she was coming along. "Let me change and I will be downstairs in 5 minutes."

Petunia went out, to probably change as well. Footsie… That's what they had always called football when they had been young. It had take them some years to understand the other meaning of the word, but for some time they assumed their older cosines all were really interested in football. How innocent they were...

Their mum had decided that it would 'do them good' to play a bit sport and so they both were dropped off at the football club once a week and to any game they played. It had always been theirs and while they both had stopped playing when they moved to France, they would always play one game in the summer. It was tradition. And one of the only two games of football Lily played most years. One with Petunia and one on the second day back in Beauxbatons in the muggleweek.

Muggleweek it what you get when your students are not allowed to take they books back home and you expect them to do homework over the holidays. School started at the 1st of September, like in any magical school in Europe, but Lily and her following muggleborn students would return a week earlier on the 24th of August. That week they spend doing homework and spending some muggletime together. For most it was the time when would return to the magical world after months of pretending it didn't exist. The tradition to play a game of football on the second day back was older than anyone remembered. They would play it on the quidditch pitch and it that was maybe a better analogy for how most of them felt than anyone was comfortable with. Once the other students would arrive, they would have put their muggle-selves to rest until the last day of school, or better the day after when they would stay a day longer in school to listen once again to all the things they were not allowed to tell they families.

Petunia and she waited outside, pacing the ball lazy between them. When the boys showed up they were sent right back home to change into sportswear. The girls sat under a tree in the shadows and Petunia played with the ball in a nervous way.

"Lily, do, I mean, did you play at your school?" There was never much talking about her school at home, but that was a harmless question right?

"Not really. There is one game at the beginning of terms, but other than that, no." She stayed quiet for a moment. "Do you?"

"Well yeah, when we have it in gym class and sometimes if we have nothing better to do." Petunia looked at her before looking down at the ball again. "Why don't you play? You were a good attacker."

"Not as good as you are a goalie." Lily laughed and wanted to change subject away from her school and that world, but she could tell Petunia. Here in Britain she could tell her a little bit and share her world with her sister for just a moment. "They don't really play football there. There have other sports like Quidditch."

"Qui-what?" Tuney looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Quidditch. Ridiculous game… It's played on broomsticks and has four balls. But in the end most of it is absolute useless."

"What?"

"You see, two teams on a field." Lily broke of a small stick and started to draw in the sandy earth in front of them. "Seven players in each team. There is a keeper, who is basically a goalie and 3 chasers. They play with the Quaffle, that's only a fancy name for a strange looking football. The chasers have to throw the ball through one of the three goal rings." She drew three rings in the sand.

"Apart of the brooms that doesn't sound so bad…"

"Well that are as you see only four out of seven players. Next we have the beaters and the Bludgers. Each team has two beaters and there are two Bludgers on the field. Those are like mini-cannonballs that try to knock the players off the brooms. Reason why I have never seen a game without someone bleeding…" She rolled her eyes and made sure that no one could listen in on them. "The beaters have to protect their team from those nasty things and attack the other team with them."

"Now, that sounds unreasonable. I mean people could be hurt by that."

"That's not even the worst part. Because everything I just explained is completely useless, because of the last player and ball. The seeker has to catch the Snitch. A tiny ball with wings that moves around like crazy and catching that thing ends the game. But not only that, no! The team that catches it gets like fifteen goals for that. There has never been a game where that didn't decide the winner. So there are like six players in the team that try to kill each other pretty much, only for it to be completely meaningless in the end… stupid game."

"It's not the first time you complain about that, is it?" Petunia watched her and a smile stretched over her lips, before she put on a serious look again. "That's the most you ever talked about all that…"

Lily looked down and avoided her eyes. "Couldn't." She shrugged her shoulders. "There are laws against it…"

"Then why did you tell me now?"

"Different laws here…" It felt strange to say so much about it in the first place.

"Lily, why didn't you want to move here?" She knows, was what Lily thought, she knows that something is wrong. Maybe this would be her chance, her parents won't understand if she explained dark magic to them, but Petunia, she always knew that there was something more Lily didn't tell. If she would help convincing their parents to just return to France…

But before she could say another word, Sirius screamed from the fence gate to proclaim their arrival.

"Ladies! Here we are! Don't worry there is enough Sirius Black for everybody!" The name made Lily look up and furry her brows while she whipped away the Quidditch drawings. She shook her head. Black was a common name and she was acting paranoid.

The four boys arrived next to them.

"What's that?" Apparently she had missed the goal posts when whipping away her explanation. And now James crouched down right next to Lily to look at it with curiosity.

"A game." Lily answered without missing a beat. As a muggleborn you get lots of practice explaining a lot of things away. "Someone draws something, the other has to guess with it is."

"Oh what's that?" Sirius crouched down next to Petunia as well to have a better look at it. He and James exchanged a look and grinned at each other.

Petunia and Lily looked at each other for a split second before answering at the same time. "Lollipops." "Tricycle."

The boys chuckled and looked down in amusement.

Petunia cleared her throat and answered. "Well you see, one of us is not very good at the game."

"Why did you play it then?" Remus asked with a wide grin.

Lily stared all of them down for just one moment. "Because some people need for a five minute way up the street and to change over an hour…"

They at least looked embarrassed. "Well you see, Mia, James' mum wanted us to help her with something for a moment and yeah…"

"And absolutely not because we had to read up on the ru- uff" Sirius was stopped by two elbows in his rips, one from Remus and one from James.

"Now you are here and we can go." Petunia got up and dusted off her butt, which was very effective to get the attention of all four boys.

Lily had many undesirable traits. One of them was her competitive nature. She watched Petunia's little show and could only smirk and think, how much better that would have been if there was actual a butt to dust off and that maybe Lily should show her how to do it. She was up and ready to do exactly that when her guilty conscience caught up to her. Was she just about to show up Petunia in front of her mugglefriends? Her big sister with who she just had probably the most honest and touching moment in the last five years? She was a horrible sister. Lily stopped her plan, before she could really get started and a quick look told her that even if it would have less of an effect than she had hoped, because the boys were either hurrying after Tuney like Sirius or looking down at their shoes in embarrassment like Peter and Remus or-. She looked around for James. He was still crouching next to her and looked up to her with an expression that said he was up for the show and really to ask for an encore as well.

She gave him one condescending look, before shaking her head. It didn't matter that she had thought about giving exactly the show he seemed to hoping for. He shouldn't expect one. "Get moving, Potter." She didn't look back as she walked passed him, but she could hear him stand up behind her.

They went over to a small field, maybe half as big as a regular field, but with only six players on the field it was more than enough. Petunia turned around to the guys and asked them. "So who of you four is going to play with us?" She gave a short wave between Lily and herself.

"You want to play together?" Remus sounded surprised.

"We thought you would be on opposite teams to make it fair and not have two girls in one team while the other is all male…" James' voice got quieter when he noticed the unimpressed looks on both faces. "Sorry?"

"We always play together." Petunia crossed her arms in front of her. "It's tradition."

"Well if it is tradition… What are we playing for?" Sirius' grin had something sinister to it as he said those words. "How about a date?"

Petunia looked scandalized and wanted to protest immediately. She liked to flirt, but selling herself to a date like this was inacceptable to her, but Lily poked her in the rips before she could say anything.

"Sure. Sounds great." Any of her friends would be able to tell that her smile was too bright and showed too many teeth to be true. Petunia looked at her in shock and anger first and then morphed into an expression of confusion. Three pairs of eyes light up in excitement, only Remus looked more suspicious than happy at the idea. She waited a moment for the boys to high-five each other before she continued. "So which one of you do you want to play on our team, so you can win a date with him, Sirius?"

Three heads snapped around to Sirius and looked at him with raised eyebrows, while Petunia laughed for a moment.

"Um… It seems like I haven't thought that through the whole way…" A white faced Sirius admitted.

"You think so? Now that is a shocker… I didn't know you could think…" Remus mocked his friend and earned a punch in the arm for it from said friend. After a short moment the other two boys joined this playful pushing and punching.

The two sisters stood there and watched them for a few minutes and started to kick the ball between them, while the boys apparently had to define their pack hierarchy. After five minutes or so Sirius was buried under the other three and they all got up to their feet again.

"Now, how about a more sensible prize?" Petunia once again talked in her teacher voice as Lily liked to call it. It was soft and smoothing and made you feel bad if you didn't follow her instructions. "Like the losers pay for the winners' ice cream."

"Ice cream?" Sirius eyes lit up and he turned to his friends. "Ice cream!"

James and Peter answered him with as much euphoria. "Ice cream!"

An embarrassed Remus tried to steal away from his friends, but they quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and formed a circle, jumping up and down. "Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!" They canted this happily while pulling a red faced Remus along with them.

"Tuney, your new friends, are they sixteen or six?" Lily and Petunia watched them with crossed arms, but couldn't suppress the smile that played on both of their lips.

"They look sixteen, but you never know. You tell me…"

They both fell into a laughing fit what finally got the attention of the boys.

"What's so funny?" Peter asked his friends with a confused look.

"Us, probably." Remus replied, still blushing like mad.

"Well we are ridiculous charming and funny guys." The stupid grin on James' face made Remus roll his eyes.

The girls were still giggling when they ask once gain. "If you are now finished with whatever you were doing, who of you his going to be in our team?"

The boys looked between each other and for a moment Lily was convinced that they would send Peter over, because he looked like the least fit of those four. But she was pleasantly surprised when Remus broke away from the group and joined him. They pulled him with them and they discussed the strategy quickly.

"Ok, Tuney, you are our goalie." Petunia nodded her agreement. "And Remus and I will make their lives living hell. I will be on the left side and you" Lily pointed at Remus. "will be on the right side. We don't know how good they are, we have to see first and then decided how to react to that. If possible Tuney you should come out with us." For the sisters this conversation was over with this, but Remus wasn't so sure.

"I'm really not that great in it…" Once again his face colored itself red. "Maybe I should be the keeper."

"No." Both answered at the same time.

"Ok…" Remus recognized when he fought a lost battle and capitulated to his fate as a field player.

The game was a lot of fun and none of the boys were really good at it. They didn't really know how to run with the ball and it was easy for Lily to steal it away from them. They had out Peter in the goal and once Lily was past Sirius and James it was easy for her to score the first two goals. 2:0 Sadly, Remus was as bad in catching a pass, as the other guys and they lost the ball a couple of times, when Lily had to kick it over to him, but Petunia was a good keeper and had always been one.

James picked up on that fast and while he made it very difficult for Lily to get past him, he ordered Sirius to steal the ball as soon as it got near Remus. This forced Petunia to get a bit further out of the goal and while this made sure that Lily was able to score another goal, it leaded to their first contra goal. Sadly by Remus, when he kicked the ball away in panic when both Sirius and James closed in on him. Much to the amusement of his friends. 3:1

"And here we thought you betrayed us." James laughed at him and Sirius whipped away a fake tear.

Remus answered those mockeries with a quite rude gesture and apologized to Lily and Petunia.

But as weak as the boys started in this, it was by no way an easy game. Mostly because James seemed to learn the game in strikes and twenty minutes in the game and he turned from a klutz who tripped over the ball into someone that could outrun her with the ball. And with his newfound skills he was able to score another time. 3:2 Because that was their big advantage, James and Sirius were a lot faster than Petunia and Lily. But Lily hadn't had the nickname Red Terror for nothing back when they played. She had it mostly because she perfected the art of stomping on someone's toes while making it look perfectly innocent. So while she kicked the ball close to his foot, he of course went for it, but that was the moment Lily landed with all her not so heavy weight on his toe and kicked the ball further and ran on to score and not caring when he cursed behind her and hopped on one leg. 4:2

He recovered quickly and with each minute he and Sirius pressed the girls and Remus back. Petunia couldn't leave her box anymore and both of the girls got more tied the longer they ran and the boys didn't seem to have that much of a problem with it. James increased the pressure and from the seven shots he fired against their goal, Petunia was able to catch five. 4:4

Next goal would decide. Lily had the ball and was running towards Peter. James and Sirius were able to come up to her with ease and manage to encircle her. If they got the ball now, it would be quite likely that they would win.

Desperate situations call for desperate measures.

While she kept the ball away from their feet she bounced slightly on her heels, just enough that she knew, it would make her chest jiggle even in the confirmed prison of her sports bra. It did the trick and both boys were distracted for just a moment, but it was enough to kick the ball out of the circle and towards Remus, who actual managed to get it.

For a moment he seemed confused what to do with it, but Peter stood in the left corner of his box to watch Lily and the other two were far away. He kicked it towards the goal and much to everybody's and most of all Remus' shock, the ball bounced past Peter who made a desperate jump towards it and landed in the net behind him. 5:4

He turned around and looked at his two teammates in shock and daze, while they started to cheer and ran towards him, crushing him in a big hug.

"You did it, you did it, you did it!"

Slowly a matching grin stretched over his face as well and he returned the hug, before all three fell into the grass to catch their breath, while still laughing and giggling. Peter tried to apologize to his friends and while James accepted it, Sirius was not very happy and kicked the ball away in anger. James turned out to be a fair loser and he went over to Remus and the girls to congratulate them.

"That was a great game. Thank you." He sat down in the grass next to Petunia. "And just so we are clear, you only won because you had the better keeper. I wish we had someone as good in our school team."

The girls still had a labored breath, but Petunia accepted his compliment with a smile. "Thank you."

They stayed in the grass for a couple more minutes before they slowing got up. The sweating clothes clinked to them like a second skin. "I think you guys owe us an ice." Lily reminded him with a smirk.

"You are right we do." He stood up and offered Petunia a hand to get up. "Sirius, Peter!" He shouted over to his friends that just returned to receive the wayward ball that Sirius had kicked away in his frustration. When he had both of their attention he screamed. "Ice Cream!" And the sour mood of them lifted immediately and they started to cheer as well.

The small ice cream parole wasn't far and while Remus and the girls already ordered and sat down the other three stayed behind to pay. It took them nearly five minutes and they looked all too pleased with themselves about it. Their bag was still rattling with coins. Remus sat between Lily and Petunia and when the other boys arrived they had a small mini fight who would sit where. It ended with Sirius next to Petunia and James next to Lily.

They talked and joked about the game for some time and James whispered to her when no one else was listening. "Cheater."

"Did you say something, loser?" She had a wide grin like a cat that ate the canary. He poked her between the ribs as revenge for that.

Once they finished they all went home Lily and Petunia raced each other for the shower. Petunia won. Damn her longer legs!

Lily had a lot of fun and the excitement was still running high and she shouted something at Petunia, when the water started to run. "Hurry up, Sister Long Leg, and don't use all the hot water!"

Then her eyes fell on an owl that sat in front of her window in a tree. She opened the window and looked around that nobody was close before letting it in. It carried a from the ministry and informed her that the request for magical emancipation, which would allow her to choose her own school without her parents' consent, would be looked at in six days and it invited her to show up for it at the ministry. A representative from the British and French ministry, as well as representatives from Hogwarts and Beauxbatons would be there as well. Her smile fell and she quickly scribbled an answer that she will be there for the owl to take with it.

* * *

A.N. Having so many people in a scene is exhausting. You always worry that you don't just let someone stand around and do nothing while the rest talks.

Lily and Petunia are difficult to write. I don't want them to be the best of friends, but they should care about each other without many words. Petunia is interested in Lily's world, but she is jealous at the same time. Jealous that she can't have this world for herself and that she can't be art of it and jealous that it pulls her sister away from her.

I hope you like this chapter and leave a review for me.

Thank you to my reviewers, you guys are awesome and yes Remus called dibs, partly because the other boys baited him into it.

I'm still looking for a beta reader.

Have a nice day.


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Between Quidditch and hanging out with the guys and Petunia at times, James had successfully dodged most of his mum's preparation for the neighborhood dinner in a few days. That day they hid in the Evans' house. James and Sirius stared transfixed on the TV that was running some cartoon. And here they thought that muggle portrays didn't move, but surely they do! Like the pictures in the cine-thing. Even the scenery changed! They sent some suspicious looks to the unmoving pictures around the living room. Maybe they could move, but just didn't for some reason. Petunia was in the kitchen to get them all something to drink and Sirius tried to catch one of the pictures moving, by making them all look in the other way and then turn around really fast. But so far, they presented themselves as the master of none movement.

Remus tried to explain in a hushed voice, that only the pictures and photos in the telly-visy can move, but he wasn't sure why. And why exactly was Remus so sure about that? He was the one Marauder that didn't even take Muggle studies!

"My uncle married a muggle and when I was young I always spent a few weeks with them and she had all this muggle stuff around." He rolled his eyes and made sure that nobody came in and could hear them. "And now stop this and look natural." He hissed at them and punched Sirius leg at the same time as Petunia came back in with lemonade.

She softly giggled when she saw Peter, James and Sirius jump up from the couch when something surprising happened in the show. "Boys." She mumbled and with a smile and sat down on the arm of the couch.

"Sorry, they are sometimes a bit childish." Remus excused them with an embarrassed smile.

Before Petunia could answer Sirius punched him in the leg. "Shut up you mutt!"

"Who do you call a mutt?" Remus shoved back.

Sirius jumped with a scream at Remus and tried to get him in a headlock. Peter and James meanwhile slid down from the couch to the ground still staring at the TV. Petunia shrieked and jumped away from them and let them use the whole sofa as a wrestling ground. Apparently Sirius was winning and finally held Remus in a headlock, who in return seemed to bit back some insults because he was in front of a girl.

"You bloody, stupid to-hmme hmpf grr. I swear I will skin you. I'll bite you!"

"Hush, before I will have to get you a muzzle." Sirius told him while petting his head and then turned to Petunia with a wide and charming grin. "What little Remy boy here really wanted to know is, where is that not sweet or kind sister of yours? It seemed like my little confused friend here has a fetish for aggressive girls that throw drinking utensils at innocent bystanders."

"As far as I know, she is in her room. It's difficult to get her out of it this summer…" She pursued her lips in displeasure and sent a look up the stairs, before shaking her head. "Well, that's Lily." Petunia sounded forcefully cheerful. Before she could say anything else a loud bang was heard in the kitchen and she jumped up to go there. "That stupid cat…" She mumbled under her breath.

As soon as she was out of the room Sirius jumped up and stalked towards the stairs.

"What are you doing?" James asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Getting Remus' little lady. You coming?" He wiggled his eyebrows at the rest and James stood up and joined him in a heartbeat and Remus and Peter followed a moment later.

Sirius and James leaded the way to Lily's bedroom. They of course knew which one it was, considering that they had carried all her furniture up there and assembled them as well. After that they had take a nap on her bed, so technically they all have already been in Lily's bed. The fact that she wasn't even in the same country at that time was only a minor detail that shouldn't diminish this conquest at all.

"I'm not sure about it…" Peter said in a low voice so he wouldn't be heart by anyone else, when they stood in front of the door. "It didn't seem like she wants to see us right now or she would have come down right?" He and Remus stay back.

"She maybe has a cup in there." Remus added with a grin.

Sirius paused for a moment before he waved their words away and threw the door open. "Lilyflower! Did you miss us?" He shouted as he burst through the door, with James close behind, only to find the room empty. Well, not really empty, there was lots of stuff in there, all the stuff they had non-magically carried up the stairs, but no small redhead anywhere. The boys looked at each other and then around the room. It looked different from last time they saw it. The bed was unmade and clothes hung next to the mirror. On the desk they could see some books and a scroll, while a leather trunk stood next to the bed. But before they could go further in or take a closer look at anything, they heard a loud bang of a door closing with too much force and a shrill voice.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?!" Lily looked angry. Her cheeks were flushed red and her long red hair flow behind her like the tail of a very determined meteor set on exterminate a whole ecosystem, in this case the ecosystem was named Marauders. Peter and Remus hadn't even been close enough to look into the room, but jumped away when she got closer. She grabbed Sirius and James by their shirts and dragged them out of her room with more strength than James would have expected from such a small person. "You have nothing to do in there!" Once she threw them out of her room she banged the door close and stood herself between them and the door. With her hands at her hips she glared up to them with her impossible green eyes.

Why impossible green? Well, James was a true Gryffindor, since the moment he was born, he was brought up on those ideas and one of those ideas was Gryffindor good, Slytherin bad. Red good, green bad. Green was never a color that James liked at all, but somehow her eyes, her green eyes looked beautiful to him, they maybe even were the most beautiful eyes James ever saw, even if their right now promised a slow and painful death to him.

When James wasn't able or ready to give her some kind of explanation she switched her glare to Sirius. His best friend wasn't busy pondering about her eye color and because of that able to stumble some words out, while raising his hands and backing away from her like from an angry hippogriff. "We were just looking for you to ask if you want to hang out or something." He looked around for a moment. "You know, Remus missed you…" At those words James saw how Remus eyes widened and he clearly didn't appraise to be brought into this argument. Ungrateful git.

"That gives you no right to go into my room." She hissed at them and advanced on them and Sirius backed away. James on the other hand was rooted to the spot and only once she stood directly in front of him and poked him hard in the chest did he tumble backwards. She reminded him of an angry wolveray, a little magical creature with anger issues that could shot plasma rays at anything that pissed it off, from a careless goat to an unsuspecting dragon. But she was a muggle right? So maybe she was more like the unmagical cosine, the wolverine. The boys were saved from their unavoidable demise, by Petunia who hurried up the stairs. She carried a small tabby cat in her arms.

"What is going on?" Petunia sounded slightly breathless and the cat jumped down from her arm.

The green predatory eyes locked into a new target and she marched over to her sister and angrily hissed at her in French. The boys meanwhile huddled together, not because they were scared or anything. They were Gryffindors after all! No, just to regroup and seek strength in numbers.

"She is complaining that Petunia let us close to her room." Sirius mumbled in a low voice and the other three boys stared at him in shock. "Petunia should know why that is important…" He hadn't noticed the strange looks from his friends. "And Petunia claimed that Lily had to watch out herself and that she only left us because her, Lily's, cat was causing trouble." After some time when no one answered him he looked around him. "What?"

" _You_." Remus put great emphasis on that word. "Speak French?"

"Yes, and German and Finish and Lettish and I'm conversable in Greek." Sirius answered right away, counting the languages on his fingers. "What?" His friends stared at him like he grew a second head, which would arguable be easier to believe than that Sirius Black of all people was a hidden linguistic genius. He stubborn stared back at them before shrugging his shoulders. "You can only marry your cosines so often before your line of ancestry becomes a circle and if you want to still keep the blood pure you have to open up some new pools from time to time…"

That explanation made kind of sense, even if it was still difficult to believe that they never noticed in the last five years.

James looked back to the two girls. The little cat was clearly suicidal, because it, he, she? caressed around the redheads legs and purred in delight. Absolute no self-preserving instinct. But to the boys great surprise it seemed like it calmed the angry girl down and when she picked the cat up, she didn't look so murderous anymore. By the time she and Petunia had finished their little discussion, all her real anger burned out and when she turned back to them, she only summoned a faint afterimage of the real thing.

"And you stay out of my room. And that is a promise and I keep my promises." With that she looked at Sirius, who understood immediately and stood to attention.

"Of course, sir, ma'am!" McGonagall would have tears of joy in her eyes if she could see this and kidnap Lily back to Hogwarts with the sole pursuit to keep Sirius in line.

"Off you go." She jerked her head towards the stairs and the boys all but ran off. Only James stayed behind. "What?"

"What are you doing tonight? We will go to beach house tonight. Do you want to come along?" Maybe it was his stubborn Gryffindor spirit that didn't like cowering before a little girl or he just didn't want all this trouble to be for nothing, but somewhere he found the courage to ask and not even sound nervous. He felt the looks of his friends at his back like he was crazy.

She seemed surprised as well and mustered him up and down, before looking at her sister, then at the three other marauders, back to Petunia and finally her eyes landed on him again. She bit her full lips and seemed to fight with herself.

"It will be fun. I promise."

"We don't live anywhere near the coast." She avoided the question and was obvious still thinking about it.

"But we have a lake and at that lake we have the beach house." The term house was such an euphemism that it was bland lie. The little shack had a few benches and tables next to the slim sand beach of the lake. It was a place where you could meet with friends or with your girlfriend, have a bonfire and drink the alcohol you stole from your parents' cupboards.

She looked to Petunia again, before she sighed and nodded. "I still have stuff to do for the next two or three hours, after that…"

"Great, we don't have to hurry." He gave her his hopefully most charming grin at her, but she just rolled her eyes and shooed him away before returning to her room. As he turned around to his friends he could hear her turning the lock shut.

Petunia apologized a dozen of times for Lily's behavior and the guys clapped him on the back for facing down the dragon.

"Tell me, Jamesie, my best friend, why is it that you are a so much better wingman for Remus than for me?" Sirius asked him while he slung his arms about both James and Remus' shoulders.

"Maybe with him it's worth the effort…"

"You hurt me, Prongsie."

"And he never calls me Prongsie or Jamesie."

They spend another two hours at the Evans house, before returning home to change and to buy some muggle beer, after they remembered that they couldn't bring butterbeer or firewhisky. It turned out to taste horrible. Why would butterbeer share a name with that nasty stuff, but they drank it anyway, because apparently muggle liked to drink nasty stuff. The girls actual didn't brought beer, but wine and if James could say so, they made the better choice.

They picked up the girls and both of them looked fine, great to be exact. They decided to bring a portable music player. Only Remus seemed to have some idea what it was, the rest of them didn't have it yet in Muggle studies. While Remus and the girls were fumbling with the thingy, the other three tried to act busy starting the bonfire. It wasn't so easy, because they first tried to do it without magic, which didn't end very successful. Finally Sirius snapped and put James and Peter on look out and started it with a quick spell. Immediately the wood lit up with flames and Lily looked over to them with a slight frown. But she got distracted once the music thingy started to play some muggle music none of them had ever heard, but it sounded really great. It was louder than they were used to and they couldn't place some of the instruments.

It was a nice summer night and the girls drank one bottle of wine between them, while the boys shared a six pack of beer. James tried his hardest not to pull a face each time the tasted it. The told some jokes and the girls talked about France, well mostly Petunia, Lily only added something when Petunia talked about something they did together.

After some time Lily pulled Petunia up to her feet. "Come sing with me, Tuney." The song was already playing for some time by then and Lily started to sing along and grinned at her sister until she gave up and sang along to the high pitch voices as well.

" _Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'_

 _And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive_

 _Ah, ha, ha, ha stayin' alive, stayin alive_

 _Ah, ha, ha, ha stayin alive"_

They end up giggling together and butchering the rest of the song, while shaking their hips to the music. They didn't care that the boys were watching them, this moment this song was just between the sisters. It ended with Petunia embracing Lily and just swaying from side to side and mumbling the lyrics to each other. They shared the rest of a wine bottle between them and started a new one, before returning to the boys. James felt like invading a very private moment just by watching them.

Petunia sat down next to James and Lily settled next to Remus. James already knew that he won the dips battle with Sirius, because apparently Sirius was just a bit too much for Petunia. Too loud, too confident, too intrusive, too arrogant. To be fair, James knew he wasn't much better than Sirius, but better at hiding it. He ruffled his hair and smiled at her, when she sat close enough that they legs touched. Sirius saw this and rolled his eyes at James, but didn't interfere. Instead he grabbed Peter and jerked him around the fire with him in an attempt to dance. James shook his head at Sirius' antics and Peter's panicked face and turned back to Petunia at his side.

"Do you like it here?" He asked her with a handsome smile, and yes he knew it was a handsome smile. He maybe or maybe not trained it back in his second year in front of a mirror.

"It's lovely." She sighed and looked over the lake that reflected the nearly full moon. She leaned her head against his shoulder and they stayed like this for some time.

She laughed at some joke he told her and he had to think about things, life, stuff. She held a hand in front of her mouth while she giggled. Her laughter was nice. Everything was nice about her. Her laughter, her clothes, her temperament, her personality, her looks. Everything was nice, not outstanding or extraordinary, but nice. James had grown up on tales how his life would go and one part was always that he would find a nice girl to fall in love with and to marry and to spend the rest of his life with. Petunia was like those stories come to life, maybe apart from her being a muggle, but you can't have everything right? Then why did it feel like something was missing? He had never felt like this before with any potential girlfriend.

While he was pondering a loud laugh cut through the silence. Lily's laugh. She didn't hide her laugh behind her hand, but laughed loud and untamed, throwing her head back, while she teetered to keep her balance. Her red hair was bouncing and dancing from her laughing fit like the flames of the fire next to her. James frowned, what kind of joke did Remus tell to make her laugh like this?

Then his eyes snapped back to Petunia, he was taught better than to wonder about other girls while he was on a kind of date. Would she be angry for looking at her sister, but she was looking over there as well with a small smile, before turning back to him.

"Eh, James, I wanted to say, thank you." She said in a low voice.

Now, this surprised him. "For what?"

"For taking Lily along. This is the first time I saw her laugh like this, since we were told that we move back here. She is just always so tense and I can't help but think that there is something she isn't telling us and that there is more to it than her acting like an obnoxious brat." She leaned back against him.

"You are really worried about her?"

"She is my little sister… But it's difficult, with her being away so much and we all feel like we slowly losing Lily. With every joke she didn't understand and with every curse word she uses and we don't know where she learned it."

"Why didn't your parents call her back from school then?" It was strange to have his arm around a girl and watch another one that was sitting there with one of his best friends.

"She wouldn't let us. I'm personally convinced that she would run away from home before she would allow that." Petunia sounded really concerned about that, but it didn't make much sense to James.

"But she is changing schools now without that much trouble right?" James was really confused. He looked down at Petunia and she sat up straight and had a guilty look on her face, before putting on a bright smile that reminded him of his mum when she wanted to change the subject.

"Of course, you are right, how silly of me." She looked around, searching for something to say. "Oh, I think the cassette is finished, I will turn it around. One moment please." She got up and went to the music thingy to do some things and it was playing again some other songs.

James watched this and furled his eyebrows, but he was ripped out of his thoughts by Sirius wolf whistling. He looked around and saw that Remus and Lily apparently took the next step and were kissing. It was strange. He had seen Sirius snog dozens of girls. So why was he feeling so irritated when he saw Remus do it? Both their hands seemed to wander and James looked away and into the fire. It just wasn't like Remus to snog a girl so soon. Normally when he had a crush he would stutter and stumble around her for weeks. Maybe that was way it seemed so off to him. It just wasn't Remus to act so forward around girls.

When he looked back the next time, they stopped kissing. They looked at each other for a moment, then Lily seemed to remember their company and James met her eyes for a fleeing moment before they darted off to Sirius and Peter before returning to Remus. Before anyone really could say anything else or do anything a new song started to play and Lily looked up with an excited grin. She stumbled to her feet.

"Tuney! We have to dance to this one." She stretched the words more than necessary when she staggered closer to her sister. Petunia looked very confused when Lily flung her arms around her neck and pulled her down to whisper something to her. James couldn't understand what, but from the way Petunia's eyes widened and then looked to Remus with suspicion, it must have started her. Lily pulled her back down again and she looked less suspicious and more concerned. Finally she shook her head and danced with Lily for the song. After it she kept her close and shook her head again.

"You are completely drunk, Lily!" She said loud and looked very disapproving down on her little sister. She pursued her lips and then looked to the boys. "I'm sorry, but I'm taking her home. My parents going to kill me, if she drinks anymore."

"Oh…" Lily made a pitiful sound, but didn't protest anymore against her sister's decision. She seemed surprisingly dolce, but maybe that was the alcohol. Not everybody got wild from drinking, like Sirius or even James himself.

The goodbyes didn't take long and Remus and Lily said goodbye with a kiss on the cheek, before the girls left. Lily looked a lot over her shoulder back to them and even gave them a short wave. James and Remus both watched them disappear around the corner. They were quiet for a bit longer before Sirius jumped on Remus back, who staggered under the unexpected weight.

"Moony, my boy, I never knew you had it in you!" Sirius laughed loud.

"Padfoot get off me!" Remus mumbled, while his cheeks turned red.

"Oh is the little Moony embarrassed because we saw him kissing his hot new girlfriend?" Sirius grinned like he had been the one kissing the hot new girlfriend. "Have you figured out how to explain to her why your love letters will be delivered by owl?" Sirius jumped down from Remus back, but only to lock him into a headlock.

"I wouldn't probably…" Remus mumbled back.

"What was that?" Sirius let go of his head, but only to take Remus face into his hands and stare him in the eyes.

"It's only a summer thing…" Remus looked down and he sounded shy. "We talked about it earlier." He said with defiance like a child.

"You, Moony, went to a hot girl and told her that you want a summer thing with her and managed to kiss her afterwards?" Sirius poked him in the chest and stared at him in disbelieve and awe. James had a hard time understanding all this as well. He knew all the words, but the just didn't make any sense coming from Remus of all people. "Teach me, master!" Sirius begged him.

James was sure that the red on Remus' cheeks got even darker, even if it was difficult to see in the dark. "Actual she did. She told me that she is only looking for a distraction for the summer and not a serious relationship right now, so we agreed to end it when we have to return to school."

Sirius stared at him with an open jaw for nearly a minute, before he returned to life somehow. His jaw was opening and closing like fish on land and his hands were moving in an uncontrolled manner back and forth. "Abede… ah… eh… ennn… WHY?" Sirius finally managed to enunciate a word. "What did you do to deserve this? The hot little sister comes to you and tells you she just wants to fool around for a few weeks without any commitment or responsibilities attached? I mean-" He looked at James and Peter with help seeking eyes.

"Moony is polite, does his homework on time and eats his greens without complaining. Nothing that could be said about you." Peter answered with a grin, but James internal had to agree with Sirius.

Sirius looked sulky and sat down next to the fire and the other joined him. "Is she a good kisser?" He asked after a moment. Remus only nodded as an answer and Sirius reacted to that with a groan.

"What's that Moony?" Peter asked, when he sat next to Remus. He was now pointing to a spot on Remus' trousers. A bright purple spot.

Remus looked at it confused and pulled his wand out of his pocket. The spot was where the tip of his wand had been. He furled his eyebrows and James felt his lips twitch.

"What's up Moony? Did your wand go off, from a bit of snogging action?" James couldn't help but mock is friend and Sirius and Peter joined in with their loud laughter.

"You're stupid cunts, all of you."

* * *

A.N. I still search for a beta reader, if someone has time...

I like the idea that Sirius knows a couple of languages, because of his pureblood relationships, but because of that he never goes around and boosts with it.

Please leave a review if you liked it or have suggestions how I could improve.

Have a nice day.


	8. Chapter Seven

Her door was locked and the curtains shut before the window, when she placed her suitcase on the ground. She set the lock on number three and caressed the lid with her wand. She had just enough time to jump out of the way when the lid flew open and something shot out of the open trunk. For a moment a multicoloured pillar erected from her trunk, before it exploded with the sound of a thousand papers unfolding around her. In a whirlwind of colors rushed past her. Rows and rows of clothes, shoes and accessories found their place in her small bedroom. Looking at some could cause a headache, because they seemed to contain more clothes than it should be possible. Around Lily mirrors appeared and around her threads with elegant wooden tags hung around her. Words were written on the tags, like Black or Jeans or Silk or a dozen other things. The trunk had been a birthday present from her friends last year and she loved it to bits. Its other setting were zero for muggle eyes, one for her private library and two for a ingredients storage and potion brewing lab.

Lily waited for a moment until the room seemed to stop moving and pulled on one of the tags with the word Robes on it. Immediately the room shifted again and most of it folded itself up again over the trunk. Only a long line of wizard robes stayed and took over the vacant space. She pulled another one with the word Blue and again everything not blue was jerked off the clothes rack. She ran her hand over the different outfits and each time she touched one it levitated off the rack and present itself to her.

She took great care in choosing her outfit today. Today was the day of her audition to decide to which school she would go for the next two year. It would decide if she had to stay in a country that was at war with people of her birth or if she could return to the relative safety of France. Lily already had more contact with the British wizard world than she wished for.

Another robe sprang forth and Lily looked at it. It looked good and she trapped it once with her wand and it flew to a hanger near the mirrors. After she chose around five more outfits to try on, she swiped the clothes rack away and behind it a row of shoes came into view. She didn't need that long for those. After only a quick moment she chose some black half-boots with seven centimeter heels. After that the shoes disappeared as well and turned back to the robes. Her final choice was a blue one that was as close to the Beauxbatons' uniform as you could get, without actual wearing one. She wanted to present her unity with her French school to both the teachers from Beauxbatons and Hogwarts, as well as the ministry worker from France.

She turned in front of the mirror. She always liked the French fashion a lot better than the British one, in both muggle and witch clothes. She often joked with her friends that French magic fashion was only fifty years behind the muggle fashion and not two hundred like the British. The skirt of her robe ended around her knees and which Lily was not only for aesthetic reasons grateful for, but she could easily hide the robe under a normal rain coat. While it was a bit warm, but for once she thanked the miserable British weather and she only intended to wear it until she was in the Knight's Bus. Last time when she had been in the Diagon Ally, she had informed herself about magical public transportation here in Britain. The bus wasn't that great, but it would beat a muggle train in speed any day. She grabbed her bigger-on-the-inside handbag with all her important papers and clapped her hands three times. Within a second everything seemed to fall back into the trunk and its lid shut close again and Lily closed her eyes, because the image always made her feel slightly unwell.

She made sure she had her wand with her and left her room. She could hear her mother talk on the phone and hushed passed that door without saying anything. It was just too much to explain. Too frightening, just too much.

She was already out the door and headed towards an old forest street that leaded to the lake the boys had shown them. It didn't have any people living nearby and would be perfect to call the bus. Sure she heard that muggle would just ignore the bus, but she didn't feel so confident about this bus business yet. She was nearly at the crossroad when she heard a voice calling her.

"Hey Lily wait up!" She heard Petunia shout after her. For a moment she really wanted to ignore her, but ultimately decided against it. She turned and with relieve she noted that Petunia was alone, as she jogged up to Lily. She had to catch her breath when she finally stood next to Lily. "Where are you going?" She most have run after her for quite some time.

"Tuney, I have to go to London for an appointment." She didn't want to explain it too much right now.

"What?" Petunia looked at her as if she was crazy. "Today? Mum said, we would help with the garden party!" She crossed her arms and stared down at Lily.

"That's today?" Lily really had completely forgot about that party at the Potter's house, mansion, whatever. She shook her head. "It didn't matter. I have to go now, it's important."

"It's always important with you." The bitterness in her voice was reflected on her face. "But never important enough to explain, right? We just have to believe whatever you say in your waste magical wisdom."

"Tuney…"

"Why did we had to leave so fast that day at the lake? Why did you wanted me to make up this story about taking you home? What is going on?" Her voice rose with each question and Lily looked around to make sure nobody heard her.

"Quiet." Of course Lily knew that she owned Petunia an explanation, but could she really tell her about the war? "There are some strange and dangerous things going on right now in Britain. Things I can't even explain myself." A little white lie. "But when I noticed how drunk I was, I realized that I wouldn't be able to protect us and I felt helpless, ok? I knew that it was stupid, but…" Lily didn't know how to end the sentence, but luckily she didn't have to, because Petunia uncrossed her arms and looked a bit uncertain.

"Lily…"

"I have to go now." She turned away and took a few steps before turning back again. "It's about my school, or which school I will go to." Lily wasn't sure why she even gave this explanation, but it felt right in that moment. "I'll try to be back in time for the party." Once again she took a few steps only to turn back to Petunia, this time walking over to her again and pulling her in a short hug. "Watch out until I'm back, ok?"

"For what?" The bitterness and frustration returned into Petunia's voice, but Lily didn't bother to answer her.

Lily looked around and nobody was around but them. Maybe it was the fact that Petunia really worried about her and seemed to be the only one that noticed that something was up with her. Or maybe she just wanted to include her sister more into her life, after she couldn't for so long. Whatever the reason was, Lily took a few step away and pulled out her wand and raised it. With a loud noise, that started even Lily never mind Petunia, a tripledecker bus appeared in front of her. Lily looked her sister in the eyes for a moment and stepped into the bus. This was probably the only kind of magic she could show Petunia until next year.

She didn't really pay the people or even diver much mind. She gave him the money for the ticket and told them to drop her off that Ministry of Magic. She stuffed the rain coat into her bag and pulled out a book and for once it wasn't any school book or law book or anything she had to read, but a book she wanted to read, just for fun and to relax. It was the first time since summer started that she read only for the story. A soft smile fled over her face, while the scenery around her changed fast and the bus was shaking its passengers around. When the driver announced that they arrived at the Ministry Lily grabbed her stuff and headed out.

The Ministry of Magic was impressive. The building stretched high than the ceiling should allow it to and the entry hall with filled with fire places and other ways of arrival. Little paper birds were flying around the building and people were hurrying around. She could see flames coming from one of the upper stories and then saw a little dragonowl flying out of it with a couple of people on its trail. The bright red feathers ended in a dragon-like horned tail and a couple of people threw themselves to the ground to avoid being hit by it. She watched for a moment, but then decided to look for her room and maybe even be able to talk to her Beauxbatons teacher, whoever it would be.

She stepped closer to the in reception desk and cleared her throat to get the attention of either the young wizard or the middle-age witch behind it that were reading a fashion and a Quidditch magazine respectively, in that order. It didn't work. They just lazily flipped their pages in perfect synchrony.

"Pardon?" Lily was nervous about the whole deal today and when Lily was nervous her patience was practically none existing. "Could one of you turn your attention away from your fascinating educational literature for a moment to do your job?" She knew that she sounded nastier than necessary, but she couldn't help it. Her foot was tapping inpatient and she was drumming with her fingers on their desk. They looked up at the same time, looked at her and then each other. It was impressive how synchronized they were with each other. Finally they did something different. The witch turned back to her quidditch magazine and the young wizard turned to her and but the Weekly Witch to the side.

"Oh sorry, my dear. It's a slow day and most people that show up so early knew where they need to go." He babbled in a chatty tone and leaned his head on his folded hands. "So what can I do for you?" He looked her over and noticed how young she was. "Do you look for your parents? Did you lose them?"

Lily felt her jaw tense, but she forced herself to smile. "No, I didn't lose my parents. I'm looking for the room E5.06. I've –" But she couldn't finish her sentence.

"Magical Education department. One of the hearing rooms. What did you do?" He looked at her excited as if he was dying to hear the newest gossip. "Did you do underaged magic one to many times?"

Lily bite her bottom lip, not in the cute way, but in the painful way you do to control yourself not to shout obscenities at the other person. "No, it is about a school transfer."

The wizard sobered up a bit. "Getting out of here as well, hmm? Maybe for the best. Ok, you have to take the elevator to the fifth floor, there you have get out on the other side, than you got in and down the hall until you come to a hallway with lots of bookshelves on the right and there the third door on the left."

"Thank you." She turned and left when he shouted after her.

"Good luck in the new school."

When she found the room, she was a bit early and waited. She wished her teacher would be here, but they would most like arrive with the two ministry people. Finally, finally she saw Madame Maxime, the deputy headmistress of Beauxbatons and soon real headmistress of the beautiful school. How could you not notice her with her towering over anyone in the hall? She was together with an old wizard, who Lily could recognize as Albus Dumbledore from research and two other men. One of them was tall and thin, while the other was short and corpulent. They were all in a conversation with each other. Lily stood up and made sure that her silk scarf was sitting right, before taking a step towards the group. Dumbledore saw her first and his blue eyes twinkled in her direction when he gave her a short nod. He must have noticed her robe, but it didn't seem to bother him at all. The next person that noticed her was Madame Maxime. She immediately stepped away from the group and greeted her in her loud and booming voice.

"Lily, how are you dear?" She placed one hand on her shoulder, or at least the two and a half finger that fit on her shoulder. "You lost some tan." She spook in French with her, before stepping behind her, still with an hand on her shoulder and introduced her to the men and for that switching to English. "And this is 'er. Lily Evans. Lily, those are Professor Dumbledore, 'eadmaster of 'Ogwarts-" She waited until they shook hands, before pointing out the next man, it was the small one. "Monsieur Pellenpapier, our French ministry representative."

"Bonjour, Monsieur."

"Bonjour Mademoiselle Evans." He greeted her in a friendly manner with a small kiss on the cheek.

"And Mr. Acurat, the British representative." The tall man nodded to her, but didn't extend his hand to her.

Lily felt like she could burst into tears and hug Madame Maxime for so obvious being on her side. Who said being a teacher pet wasn't a good thing never needed one of them to fight their battles. She made clear with every gesture and every word, that she believed that Lily belonged to them, to Beauxbatons, to France.

"Well if we now all know each other, we should get on with it, right?" Dumbledore said and Acurat opened the door.

It was a strange hearing room and Lily felt like she was on trial more than anything. A long table was curved around a single little table and chair, where Lily sat. The two ministry workers sat in front of her and the two teachers to the side. She straightened her back and put on a confident smile. She wouldn't let them see how nervous she was.

Acurat placed a selfwriting quill on a piece of paper that lay between him and Pellenpapier and start reading from another scroll.

"We come here to decide the future place of education in the case Evans, Lily. For the case present are Uflon Acurat, for the British Ministry of Magic and Francis Pellenpapier, for the French Magical Government. As representatives for the educational institutions are Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, first Class, Headmaster of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Magwumo of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Madame Olympe Maxime, Deputy Headmistress of the l'Académie de Magie de Beauxbâtons, member of the International Magical Education Congress." He looked at the quill to make sure that it wrote all the titles correctly before continuing. "And finally Ms. Lily Jade Evans, born 30th January 1960." He looked at her for a moment as if to make sure that those dates were correct. Lily didn't protest, so he went on. "This committee is here to decide at which institution Ms. Evans will finish her education." Then he turned to her, to questioning her. "Ms. Evans, you were born in England, to two English none-magical parents. Is that correct?" His upper lips twitched for a moment in disgust.

"Yes." She didn't like his tone at all when he talked about her parents.

"You are still a British citizen under magical, as well as muggle law. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"On once got an acceptation letter from Hogwarts. Is that correct?"

"Yes, but my parents moved to France before the start of my first term and I was enrolled in Beauxbatons instead."

"That was not part of the question, but will be noted." He informed her, before returning to his questions. "Your parents had expressed the wish that you should go to a school in the same country as them. Now they moved back to England." That wasn't a question, but Lily answered anyway.

"Yes, but my parents are not familiar with the arguments or circumstances that would advice another decision." Her eyes flickered to Madame Maxime.

"Yes, because of the French Muggleborn laws." He looked over to his French colleague, who nodded. "Ms. Evans, I will be honest. I see no reason why we should take any other course of action, but to enroll you in Hogwarts."

Anger burned in her and she was sure that her face was already flushed red, as it always did when she felt angry. "With all due respect. You have a civil war here at your hands. Against muggleborns!" She took a breath to calm herself down again. At her choice of words Mr. Acurat looked like he bit into a lemon.

" _Civil war_ is really not the right word. We have some political disputes at the moment, but nothing that should worry you or would have any influence on your education at Hogwarts." He looked with displeasure at the quill as it wrote down the words, before fixing his eyes back on her.

"Muggleborn make up 7.2% of the total magical population in Britain, but are victims of 34.1% of all violent crimes, that includes bodily harm, murder and sexual violence. Addition there are subject of 37.7% of all missing cases in the last two years. I always do my homework, as Madame Maxime can attest you." It got really hard to keep some form of smile on her face right now.

Mr. Acurat's eyes turned dark. "Those are surely some unfortunate statistical deviations, but to talk about any kind of war is completely unreasonable." He stood up from his chair to spit his answer back at her. After that he straightened his robe and sat down again.

Lily realized, he wouldn't admit that it was unsafe for a muggleborn to move to England. It wasn't the direction the ministry was willing to go. She had to calm herself down once more and looked at the other three people at the table. M. Pellenpapier looked down and avoided her eyes, he wasn't willing to press this subject either. Madame Maxime looked outraged for her, ready to jump to her defense. Dumbledore, he was strange, he was just leaning back into his chair and was watching her with twinkling eyes.

"Apart from those _political disputes_ you have here. I would prefer to finish my education at Beauxbatons. The school's way of teaching was very well received by me and I would hate to give up on some of the extra-curriculum classes I'm able to take there. I think, Beauxbatons is able to give me the best chances for my further education and future prosperity after school. I'm happy to say that I'm a prefect and I'll admit that I aim to be head girl one day and I'm last year champion and hopeful future president of the dueling club." She looked over to Madam Maxime, who nodded with a proud smile to both. "Furthermore I'm helping out with Madame Ourstueuse's research team in hope to find a way to cure lycanthropy."

It was a passion project for Madame Ourstueuse, the Magical Creature professor at Beauxbatons. Her little brother was bitten by a werewolf and since then she searched for away to help him, even if he committed suicide a few years after the bite. She had been the once to publish the paper that animagi could harmlessly interact with transformed werewolves. She had a research center far away from school, only accessible through floo network that was each month filled with caged werewolves. It gave them the chance to transform safely and her, the chance to research them. Addition she had kind of a school for those that had to stop their education because of the condition or couldn't even start it. She taught all of them herself in all subject with the help of some students from Beauxbatons. Lily was one of those students. They had planned for her to join the research team as soon as Lily turned seventeen next January, because Lily was downright brilliant in potions and had a good instinct for them.

Of course Lily wanted to help them. They were in a terrible situation and pushed to the side of society without any fault of their own. Only a completely heartless monster wouldn't feel compaction for them. But if she was honest with herself it wasn't the only reason why she wanted to be part of the project. To get her name immortalized for being the first person to brew up the cure for lycanthropy. It had a nice ring to it. It really wasn't difficult to imagine her own chocolate fog card.

She looked at the two ministry workers with untamed pride and waited for their reaction. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see how Dumbledore leaned forward and watched her with more interest than before.

"An impressive résumé you have there." Acurat admitted even if unwilling. He didn't say anything more about this topic. "I have looked into your fill and I can't find your O.W.L. results in there."

She hated this guy, Lily decided and balled her hands into fists under the table. "No, I got a letter that informed me, because of this case and because it was undecided which school I would visit next year I would get my results delayed."

"Yes, but the results should be here anyway." He looked to his French colleague with a raised eyebrow.

Pellenpapier, who much to Lily's displeasure, hadn't talked much until now, cleared his throat. "Ah, yes." He looked through his papers and flushed red when it took a bit longer. "Ah, 'ere the results." He unrolled a scroll of parchment. "Twelve of her thirteen exams are accounting to my files graded." He read something up. "But one subject is missing and the results can only given out complete." He shuffled some more through his papers. "What we are missing are her Divination results."

"What? Why?" Lily asked without thinking. Why was that one missing? What was the problem? She knew she flunked that subject. It wasn't too difficult to deduct, considering that she had a stress meld down in the middle of the practical exam that resulted in her flipping her examiners off and walked out of the test.

Everybody looked at the short man and waited for an explanation. "Apparently the test committee is discussing how to 'andle the prediction she made in the exam."

Lily looked at him as if he grew a second head. What prediction? She didn't make any prediction.

He read over his papers, flushed red once more and cleared his throat again. "The prediction in question was this, I quote: Listen, I'm not going to waste my time 'ere, when I could spend it to learn for something useful. Because this rubbish and 'ogwash! I should 'ave stopped wasting my time years ago. I'm off 'ere and that I'm failing this rubbish will not change the fact that I'm the best witch you 'ad seen in a long time, because I will excel in every other subject. I'm the best in this year. End of quote."

Everybody was quiet in the room and Lily felt herself blush and shrink down under the scandalized look of Madame Maxime.

"That is a truly interesting prediction." Dumbledore broke the silence and Lily could see the laughter dance in his eyes. "What exactly is the problem?"

"Yes, it is." Pellenpapier agreed with a nod. "Now the problem is that she is right that she excelled in every other subject. This would make her prediction true." Madame Maxime looked proud, but not surprised that she passed all her other exams with flying colors. Dumbledore nodded for him to continue. "And a true prediction would mean that she would pass this exam, but she predicted herself to fail and because of that, it would be an untrue prediction and she would fail, but then it would be true again..." He trailed of in his explanation.

"Ah, I see. A paradox prediction… Very tricky." How Dumbledore could say this without bursting into hysterical laughter was beyond Lily's imagination. She just sat there opening and closing her mouth, completely speechless.

"Yes, isn't it?" Pellenpapier agreed with a nod and put the scroll down.

"Unbelievable…" Lily managed to mumble and massaged her temples.

"Maybe we could find a way to send the other results to Ms. Evans here and then adjust her total result once this dispute can be settled." The old wizard suggested with a wink to Lily. "I got the impression that Ms. Evans didn't have the plan to continue her Divination studies in the future." Lily nodded to that assumption. Pellenpapier's hesitated nodded he clapped his hands in delight.

"But we can't give out the 'igh score tables until we have a result." He added with a nervous smile.

"We shouldn't worry too much about comparing our students anyway. It seems quite petty to me. Wouldn't you agree Olympa?" Dumbledore asked the tall woman at the other side of the table, who nodded even if unwilling.

"Fantastic." Then he turned to Lily. "But Ms. Evans, I have to say, thirteen subject, plus prefect duty and dueling club and volunteering for Madame Ourstueuse project. That is quite a lot. When did you have time to sleep or eat?" He wasn't mocking her or at least she couldn't detect any mocking in his voice or face.

"No, but I have good friends, in Beauxbatons," She added her school's name, because every reminder where she belonged could help right now. "That help me a lot and very supportive teachers." Lily turned to Madame Maxime and smiled at her. "I always stayed in school for the Easter holidays and some of our teachers offered a composed lecture in that time. Apart from that I normally made sure to learn my muggle subjects in the summer so that I can make a test at the end of muggle week to be freed of those lessons within the year. And I admit that I didn't take my Divination class serious for quite some time now. It only leaves my with really ten classes a week." And then a smile fled over her face. "And I stayed away from such time and energy consuming hobbies like Quidditch."

"That seems like a wise decision." He acknowledged with a short laugh.

"Yes, that is all very interesting." Acurat said and sounded completely uninterested. "But I would say we now heard enough of Ms. Evans proposal. I would think it is time that we discuss this matter." He looked at M. Pellenpapier, Dumbledore and Maxime. "Ms. Evans, if you would please wait outside for our decision." He gestured with the open hand towards the door and didn't move until she left the room.

And then she waited and waited and waited. For nearly an hour she sat on a comfortable chair across to the door. No sound could be heard from within the room and Lily was far too nervous to read. Again and again she picked at her nails, until she was in desperate need for a manicure. She watched the people that rushed past her and the hall. One older man looked slightly familiar with his wild dark, but graying hair and strong jaw. He was still handsome for an older man. He didn't pay her any mind. She waited some more.

Finally the door opened and Madame Maxime strode out of the room with anger and fury written on her face. Her long elegant legs carried her over to Lily in only two steps. Lily scrambled up to her feet, when she was already in front of her. The gigantic woman leaned down and hugged Lily close, which must have been a very strange picture. She ended the hug, but still held her shoulders, or more like her complete upper arm down to the elbow. She talked in French with her. "Lily, no matter what. You will always be more than welcome in Beauxbatons. Ophila" That was Madame Ourstueuse first name. "Will most definitely have a place for you in her project and I'm sure she would love to stay in correspondents about the progress. She is convinced that with you in the project a breakthrough could be made in the next ten years." Tears shimmered in her teachers eyes and Lily felt dread come over her. She wouldn't return to Beauxbatons. She would have to stay here where people hated her for being… even more than in France. "You'll succeed, because you are an astonishing witch and we are all very proud of you." Lily's lips quivered and she only noticed the tears in her eyes when her vision got blurry. She shook her head. This wasn't the plan. Maxime stood up straight and pulled her against her again. Lily flew her arms around her, as far as she could buried her face against her naval. Madame Maxime offered her a silken handkerchief in the side of a towel. She let go of Lily when Lily had tried her tears. She threw one last angry look at all three men, before she strode away. And yes, Lily was that much of a teacher pet.

Pellenpapier looked lost. He explained that he would take of the papers on his end before running after Madame Maxime with a ridiculous half run half bounce gait, begging her to wait for him. Lily watched after them, to delay the inevitable confrontation with her new reality. She heard how Acurat said his goodbyes to Dumbledore and he didn't bother to say anything to her. His steps went into the other direction. Lily still stared down the hallway long after Maxime disappeared. Finally she tore her eyes away and looked back to the door.

Albus Dumbledore still stood there, with folded hands and a patient smile on his lips. "Ms. Evans, I know this is not the result you hoped for. But I think we should sit down somewhere and talk about a few things."

Lily didn't trusted her own voice yet and just nodded.

"Fantastic!" He took a few steps and then waited for her to catch up to him. Hesitantly she fell in step with him. "I know a lovely café where we can talk in private and I can assure you that they have the best raspberry cream cake you will ever taste."

Lily sat across the old man and while she was nitpicking at her cake, he was nearly finished with his second piece. She had been quiet for most the time and Dumbledore had filled the silence with some babbling, that was obvious only to make her feel more comfortable. She appraised it. It gave her time to think, to adjust herself.

"I never considered that I would really go to Hogwarts." She finally admitted. "Tell me about it. Only thing I know about it is that it's a school founded by Helga Hufflepuff and her friends."

He chuckled and then he told her about the castle and its history and its surrounding and its houses and Lily slowly started to imagine herself in that place.

"When will I be sorted?" She asked when he finished telling her about the four houses.

"Now, if that is ok for you." He told her and pulled something out of his robe. It was a remarkable ugly piece of leather and after a moment and lots of good will she was able to identify it as a hat. He placed it in the middle of the table. Lily looked at him puzzled. "You have to put it on."

Lily reached out, but before her fingers touched it she hesitated and balled her hands into fists. It would make this real and final. It would mean, that she accepted this development. Her eyes flickered from the hat to the headmaster, who just watched her with a small smile. She opened her fists and lifted the hat from the table and put it on her head.

As soon as it touched her head she heard a voice in her mind. "Oh hello. It is always pleasant to touch a mind that has formed itself some more and more difficult. Oh where to put you? I see you have quite an admiration for old Helga and rightfully so. The old girl would have liked you. You have a kind and loving heart, even if you try to hide it." He voice chuckled a bit. "But she would agree that Hufflepuff is not where your future lies. Oh what a great mind you have there. Sweet Rowena would have been delighted to talk with you about all you questions, as you wonder right now, how they created me. But your mind is aimed at your ambitions. Slytherin is where you could follow those and dear, you would be brave enough to be the first muggleborn to walk through the snakefields and resourceful enough to emerge unbitten. But in the end, this bravery outshines everything else in you." The voice in her mind went silent and the hat opened its mouth and said one word in a clear voice. "Gryffindor."

Lily put the hat down and gave it back to Dumbledore who looked all too pleased, as if a bet he placed just paid off.

"Gryffindor, a good choice. I went there myself." He put the hat away again. "Hmm, you know, while I definitely can't offer you a project like at Beauxbatons. And we don't even have dueling club at Hogwarts, but I'm sure Professor Flitwick would be more than happy to help you to keep your form up." He winked at her with those words. "But what I can offer you is a prefect badge. You see, our sixth year female Gryffindor prefect moved with her family to America this summer. It would be an honor if you would pick that place up and maybe you can even bring some new ideas with you."

Lily pondered over the offer for a moment before accepting. "Thank you for your trust." She bit her lip and looked down for some time. "Can I ask you some questions? About some people and their" She paused for a moment. "Aliments?"

He smiled at her and ordered another piece of cake.

* * *

A.N. Lily is now going to Hogwarts, even if she is not happy about it.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its characters are not mine and I don't make any money with thifs story.

Thank you to all my reviews. I'm very grateful for your help

I hope you like this chapter and would leave a review for me.

Have a nice day.


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

The day after their little escape to the lake, Mia Potter had thrown all four boys out of their beds at half past seven in the morning. Accounting to her, it was about time that they made the garden muggle-friendly. That meant degnoming, hiding the quidditch pitch, relocating the singing roses and freezing the creeping ivy into place. That last one was a bit heartbreaking, because there was this one ivy plant that was very tame and trusting. It would follow you around all day when you are outside and loved to wrestle with the boys and to hit it with freezing spells seemed wrong. When James flicked his wand he mumbled an apology along with it. He was able to use underaged magic, because the ministry only really registered the location where magic happened and when adult witches or wizards where around, it was normally too much of a hassle to investigate, especially if no muggle where around.

Now the garden was once again muggle friendly. Nothing was moving that shouldn't move, hopefully. Even his mum wasn't always sure what was muggle normal and what not. So far it had worked out.

After that the house needed to be decorated. Now Sirius and James missed Remus while doing it, because he had to return home because of the full moon. But they were sure that they did a good job with it. They looked around the living and dinner room with a proud smile. Next to the fireplace they had put a toaster, very muggle, and a hair dry maker thing lay on the commode, that looked very muggle as well. Apart from that they had put up four clocks on the wall. That seemed inpractical, bit for some reason a muggle clock only showed one time and not for each family member. To put up a new clock for each family member seemed ridiculous to them, put that were muggle right? Sirius had even placed a pair of rubber ducks on the mantle. Sometimes James had to admit that his best friend was a pure genius. They looked at the room and nodded to each other before shaking hands on it. Perfect!

Now that the house and garden were as unmagical as you could get, they would have to prepare the tables and decoration for the garden party. His mum was already running around the house and did a million small things, while the house elves prepared a feast. She was rushing past the boys right now. She stopped for a moment and looked around.

"Oh this looks lovely, boys." She gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. James felt himself blush and he would have protested if Sirius hadn't looked so happy about this kind of affection. "Can you now help in the garden to set up the tables and the decoration? Some of the neighbors are coming over to help." Both boys groaned at the idea that from now on they had to do everything the muggle way. "Hush you. The Evans girls are coming as well."

She hadn't finished that sentence when they heard a knock on the door. All three went over to the front door and opened it to reveal one Evans sister. Petunia. James let his eyes wander behind her, just to make sure he didn't miss the little redhead, not that you could with such a bright hair color.

"Hello Petunia dear." His mum hugged her. "It's so nice of you to help us." Yes, his mum really adored Petunia. James was sure that if she had been a witch his mum would already plan their wedding. Not that her being a muggle was that much of a problem. His mum loved her muggle neighborhood.

"Hello, Mrs. Potter and it's no problem at all." She smiled back at his mother with a shy smile.

"Didn't I tell you to call me Mia?" His mum pulled her into the house, but not before looking around one more time. "Didn't your mum said that you sister would come as well?"

"Eh no, I mean yes." She looked flustered and avoided looking into his mum's eyes. "My sister, Lily, she had an important appointment about her new school at short notice." She looked very uncomfortable when telling them this. "She will come later."

His mother pursed her lips. It was never a good sign when Euphemia Potter pursed her lips. It normally meant she decided to dislike someone and being disliked by Euphemia Potter was an all or nothing deal. It meant that you had to deal with underhand compliments and becoming the pariah of whatever social stage she encountered you.

James thought that it was time for damage control. "Well, she cares about her education. You always tell us to do that more." Her eyes softened a little bit, but Lily Evans better be on her best behavior when she would finally show up here, or she would not be a much liked person in this neighborhood. He thought about all the interactions he had with the fiery girl. Who was he kidding? This evening would end with his mum having another sworn enemy.

"Of course. But it's lovely that you are here dear. I'm sure the boys will be delighted by your help."

They weren't.

At least James wasn't and thw dark and stormy look on Sirius face suggested he felt the same.

It wasn't even all the tulle and pastel colors or even the oversized flower decorations everywhere. Those were all normally girly things and his mum would do it the same. No the problem was that they had to do all that the mundane way. Hell, James and Sirius had spent nearly an hour looking for a ladder, before conjuring one up, when Petunia wasn't looking.

Once it was clear that nobody would ask her about her sister anymore, Petunia relaxed and she decorated a storm. James felt a bit uncomfortable reminded of Madam Puffifoot's, but once again, that was normal for his mum's garden parties.

It wasn't long before all guests would arrive and some of the neighbors passed by to drop of salads and other things before going home to get ready. It got interesting when Mrs. Evans showed up. She talked to his mother and turned pale and then red. She talked fast and was completely flustered and to James it looked like she was apologizing to his mum. After a moment she called Petunia over and the two started to talk in French.

James elbowed Sirius ribs hard.

"Ouch, what was that for?" His best friends complained while rubbing his ribs.

"I want to know what they say." James pulled him Sirius along with him.

"Then go there! What do I have to do with it?"

"I can't speak French and you can." He looked at him wide eyes and a 'got it' gesture. Sirius rolled his eyes, but didn't fight him anymore.

Once they were in hearing ranch Sirius started to translate more or less. "Petty said that she couldn't stop her even if she would try." He listened to something Mrs. Evans said. "I didn't catch the first part, but something, something, ehehe- Lily having secrets and that's apparently bloody funny."

And true enough Petunia was laughing at her mother's words, but it didn't sound like a joyful laugh more sarcastic and hollow. She said something between the laughter and James looked at Sirius exceptionally. "It's not so easy Prongs, you know…" He grunted and listened with a concentrated look on his face. "She didn't have more secrets, she has less and that's why they can see that she had been one secret for the last, I didn't catch that, years. Or something like that, maybe." Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "That's the best I can do for you."

"What do you think it means?" James watched the Evans family a moment longer. Mrs. Evans looked like she had a headache and Petunia looked frustrated.

"I've no idea." And Sirius voice let him know that his friend had no intention to find out.

"Hey, where is your adventurous spirit?" James looked scandalized at his partner in crime.

"What? Wonky Great-granduncle Fidelio always told me when I was young that you should not poke your nose into things if there is a high chance of having hot brewery cups thrown at you by redheads." Sirius answered and looked at James' doubtful face. "He was always oddly specific about his sage advices and warnings. We always thought he was a bit of a seer."

James wanted to say something but saw Petunia walking up to them and instead hushed Sirius up. Petunia looked stressed and annoyed. "Hey everything ok?" James nodded in the direction of Mrs. Evans who was talking to his mother again.

"Yes, of course, only an old argument. Don't worry about it." She put on a smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Mum and I are going home to get ready, but we will be back in-" She looked at her watch. "maybe an hour. Lily and dad will be here as soon as Lily is back." She said her goodbyes and kissed them both on the cheeks. "See you later."

"See you." The boys waved after her as she went to his mum to say goodbye as well.

After both Evans left, his mum came over to James and Sirius. "Ok, everybody gone?" All three looked around the garden and nodded and Mrs. Potter turned away from the street while the boys watched out for any passing muggles. With a wave of her wand everything that wasn't perfect yet sat itself into place. "Great." She looked around and seemed satisfied. "Now go in and get ready as well and if your father shows up tell him to get ready as well. One day in the year I ask him to get home on time, but no! There is always some emergency around the corner for him." She shook her head and mumbled on while the boys ran off.

The party itself went surprisingly well. Maybe too well. The Evans arrived complete and his mum hadn't come to heads with Lily Evans, yeat. So everything was fine, that was until dinner. For some reasons the Evans were seated opposite of them. Probably because they were the new neighbors, but still. It smelled like disaster and he was a marauder, he knew how disaster smelled like.

"Oh, Petunia, Daisy and Martin how lovely that you are here!" His mum was so overly friendly with them, that you couldn't miss how her demeanor cold down when turning to Lily. "And you must be Lily. I heard quite a lot about you. It's so nice that we finally meet. It's a shame that it took us so long." Her eyes were colder and only some good old fashioned groveling could get the little redhead back into his mother's good grace. Thankfully that was second nature to people around her, especially muggle. James once heard in muggle studies that they felt on a subconscious level that they should not mess with magic folk.

Lily seemed to have missed those lectures, because she looked his mother right in the eyes. "Well some things couldn't be helped. I'm a busy person and I'm sure you do something else as well than wait around for people to stop by." She wasn't any bit less passive aggressive than his mum, but she had her own mother behind her who cleared her throat with a pointy look. "But I'm so delight to be here and finally meet you as well." Something about her told him, that it couldn't be further from the truth. She looked tired and exhausted somehow and only wished to be in her bed.

"Well, now we did meet." His mum turned back to the three Evans that didn't irritated her. "But I have to say, she looks nothing like any of you. If I have seen her anywhere else, I would have never guessed that she is your daughter." The way Lily rolled her eyes suggested that this wasn't the first time she heard that piece of information. But it was true. Lily looked out of place with her deep, shining red hair and bright green eyes. Neither her mother, nor her father had that coloring.

His father laughed at that and answered. "No, not really. We like to say that Lily is the collection of all the forgotten or lost genetics." And that answer she didn't hear for the first time either. "The red hair is from my family, there are always some redheads popping up from time to time."

"And the green eyes are from my grandfather." Mrs. Evans continued. "She is short like my mother-in-law. And some things we really don't know where she got it from, like her lefthandness." Her parents laughed together and James had the feeling they didn't tell the whole joke. But the rest of the guests joined them in their laughter. This seemed to settle the conversation for now and it didn't pick p again until dessert.

Sirius was entertaining the Evans girls with some terrible puns. ("I'm sure Remus is howling in misery because he can't be here." For example.) But James had his attention on the conversation next to him, between his mother and the older Evans.

"Really, it just confused me that Petunia is such a darling and her sister just so…" His mother searched for words to describe Lily and it didn't seem like she wanted to give out compliments. "Rude."

Mrs. Evans turned red and desperately searched for words. "When she was young she was such a sweet child, but each time she got home for the summer break she was more confident and told us less about her life. But that is normal for teenagers, right?" She was embarrassed and looked to her husband, who was turning red as well.

"Today she disappeared without telling anyone where exactly she was…" His mum had a pitiful look on her face, while his dad was focusing his whole attention on his dinner plate. "That sounds out of control for me. But maybe a new and British school can help her. Especially since you told me that you'll send her to a school for children like her."

James noticed that Sirius got quiet; that most people at the table were quiet and listened to that conversation or where whispering under their breath and pointing look at Lily. He looked over to the girls. Petunia looked shocked and embarrassed, like their mother, while Lily wasn't. She looked cold, calm and calculating.

"That wasn't- I mean- that was about- I-" Mrs. Evans looked helpless from her husband to Lily to his mother.

And his mum looked at Lily, with a look that told her that nobody got sassy with her in this neighborhood.

"How dare you!" With a loud bang Mr. Evans fist connected with the table. He was red as well, but with anger and ready to explode into his mother's face. His mum looked shocked, the idea that the Evans could stand up to her to protect their daughter hadn't occurred to her. "My daughter is not like that! She is-"

"Daddy, it's alright." Lily put a calming hand on his arm. "Please, it's alright. Don't worry. It didn't bother me. You don't have to defend me like this." That was unexpected. James assumed that Lily would attack right back, not knuckle down to his mother. It was a bit disappointing.

"Yes, I do! It's not alright. You don't have to accept talk like this, Tiger-Lily. We are not ashamed of what you are and-" Mr. Evans obvious wasn't ready to let anybody talk down on his daughters. He put an arm around Lily and hugged her to him. But Lily interrupted him.

"Daddy, she doesn't mean it like this. I'm sure she didn't mean it in a condescending way." Her voice was soft, but clear for everybody to hear and before her father could say anything back, she looked at his mother. "I mean, she's sending those two boys to _such_ a school." With her free hand she pointed to James and Sirius, who in returned felt every pair of eyes on them. Now it was his mother's turn to turn red with anger. "I mean, record holder of fastest detention ever, record holder of most detentions, always playing pranks, the teachers having a countdown until they leave the school and even a party back in the teacher lounge in their fourth year when the boys had been the longest time there." Her voice was so conversational it was sickening. James avoided the burning eyes of his mother. One of the only reasons, why he always got off the hook about their pranks was that no one in the neighborhood would ever know about them. And now all that was in the open.

Damage control!

"Oh, that, eh. You have misunderstood something." Where did she know any of that? He hadn't told her. He looked to Sirius, who shook his head as well. Neither of them had talked long enough with her to tell her any of this, only… "Remus must have exaggerated some things."

"Yes, to impress you. You know, trying to be a bad boy." Sirius agreed with him wholeheartedly. "He probably thought being a prefect wasn't the best pick-up line."

James and Sirius exchanged a look. They were both going to kill that boy. Some of the old ladies giggled at them. His mother's hands still shook with anger.

"Really? You think so?" Lily asked all too innocent. Both boys nodded. "That's strange." She looked back to his mum. "Because it wasn't Remus that told me any of that." Not? James looked wide eyed at Sirius, who looked as clueless as James felt. "I had a meeting today regarding my future education and those where all stories Headmaster Dumbledore told me when I mentioned your names." Showing so many teeth was already baring teeth and not smiling, right?

Sirius turned white as a ghost and James was pretty sure he mirrored that look. That changed things. A lot of things. A lot. A witch. Merlin, they were in trouble.

"Lily, you mean they are like you? Going to the same kind of school?" Mrs. Evans asked in a soft voice. She looked a mix of confusion and excitement, while her husband seemed shocked out of his previous anger and Petunia just looked shocked and confused.

"Yes, mum. I think we will go to the exact same school in the upcoming year." She told her parents in a far too sweet voice to be honest. And then she looked at him and Sirius. "I believe we will even be in the same year and house, if I understood Dumbledore correctly. Gryffindor, sixth year, right?"

They nodded dumbly. At least James felt dumb while nodding. Did she not notice that his mum was burning holes into her skull? James was sure he already saw smoke coming from her hair. And to make everything worst Sirius opened his mouth.

"Well maybe Dumbledore was exaggerating to impress- Ouch!"

James didn't even look at Sirius when he hit the back of his head to make him shut up.

Someone started to chuckle and then downright laugh out loud. "Touché." It was his father. "Oh, don't look like that Mia. It was a simple misunderstanding. What you thought was disobedience is just the greater independence that many gifted children possess, especially in her situation. Isn't that right, Mia?" His eyes were dancing with laughter, but their turned serious just for a moment, when he looked at his wife. She stayed quiet for a moment, before putting on a brilliant smile.

"Of course. My mistake." It must hurt his mother's pride to say those words. "So you will attend school with my boys next year. Tell me, are you nervous?" She asked in a poisoned sweet voice.

James looked from his mother to Lily. Her eyes became more guarded and her left hand fell under the table. She pushed her chair back a little bit and her eyes flew over all Potters and Sirius, darting more often to his mother and Sirius. "There are some things that worry me quite a bit." She answer with clenched teeth. He saw the muscles in her left arm tense.

"Good, -" His mother wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by his father.

"Mia!" His father bellowed at her and she just looked at him in shock. His father never shouted, especially not at his wife. "Is that a way to _treat_ a guest?" He did say treat and not threat, right? He had swallowed that word a little bit. His mum looked at him for a moment in confusion, before her eyes widened and she lifted both her hands up in a nonthreatening way. One of her hands flew to her mouth a couple of times. She looked flustered and shocked and apologizing.

"Oh no, I didn't- I mean- It wasn't- Not _that_! Just about the subjects and the new school, new classmates… We are not like that. Never like that…" James had never in his life seen his mother so embarrassed.

Lily mustered his mother a moment looker, before looking at his father and then Sirius and finally him. Her eyes stayed on him and he felt his heart speed up. Her eyes narrowed into slits and Sirius elbowed him in the ribs. Sirius gave him a pointy look and shrugged his shoulders with an open hand gesture. James felt at a loss. Something was going on and he didn't catch the memo. And Sirius got it before him! His eyes flew over the rest of the dinner party. Most had returned to their own conversations, surprisingly, maybe one of his parents had cast a quick spell to make them lose interest. His eyes landed on Petunia and Mr. and Mrs. Evans. They looked as confused as he felt. Petunia knitted her eyebrows at him and pursed her lips. They didn't understand what was happening around them, but they were muggle. Of course they wouldn't understand. Muggle. Lily was muggleborn. He looked at her again, at her tense arm. She was lefthanded. Her wand. She was gripping her wand, because she was muggleborn in a pureblood house, with her muggle family. He looked to his father for only a moment. He had his hands palm up on the table. He was the last one to show her that he was wandless, that was why she was watching him. He mimicked his father and Lily seemed to relax a bit. The tension left her arm, but she kept it by her side. He smiled at her and hoped she would see that he was sorry.

"Lily what is going on?" Mrs. Evans put a hand on her shoulder.

"Nothing, everything is fine." Lily answered and for the first time looked away from them, to reassure her family. Why hadn't he noticed that she had been watching his family since she arrived here? "Don't worry about it."

* * *

A.N.

What to say about the chapter. I few thoughts I had about this chapter:

I imagine James' mother as a very headstrong woman, who is left unchallenged most of the time, but Lily isn't one to lay low and because of this those two clash. This time Lily wins, because she had an ace up her sleeve.

Why did Sirius understood the situation before James? Because Sirius is aware what his last name meant. Even if he started to forget about it in Gryffindor, he still had the name Black. I think one of the reasons the marauder went after Slytherins so much, was because Sirius wanted and needed to separate himself as much as possible from his family and to show everyone that he was the good Black.

James on the other hand never considered the possibility that muggleborn could be afraid of him. And why? He was a Gryffindor, one of the good guys and a Potter on top. His father was an auror and his family always stood for the right side. The idea that he could appear intimidating just because he was a pureblood, surrounded by other purebloods, never crossed his mind.

Please leave a review and help me to get better. What did you like about the chapter and what not so much?

Have a nice day


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Dumbledore seemed like a good place to start when it came to trusting people. She trusted Dumbledore when he told her that the Potters were on the right side. If she wanted to survive here and not turn into a crazy paranoid nutcase she had to trust some people, right? She couldn't take on the entire British wizard world on her own, right? Lily ran her hand through her hair, while walking in her room up and down.

It was two days since the garden party. Yesterday she had sat her family down and tried to explain some things. She would go to Hogwarts and they would live in England. They needed to know some things. Not all things, never all things. Lily couldn't even imagine how to start explaining everything.

Just that there was more to magic than making things move with her mind. That there were subjects, magic subjects in school. That there was a secluded community, that she, Lily, was part of, but they would never be. That there were families that never interacted with the normal world. That there were separate hospitals and busses and villages and politics.

And finally she told them that there were people in this community that weren't happy about people like her. She didn't tell them about the missing people, about torture, the murders or the war. She couldn't. It would be too much for her parents. Not today. Later. Maybe.

Today her mum had invited the Potters over for dinner, to talk with them about the magical world and about Hogwarts. Lily felt like a nervous wreck. She cast a critical look in the mirror. Was she overdressed in her midnight blue dress? It was a causal summer dress that ended a bit over the knees. But for the old fashioned wizard folk of Britain it was already scandalizing to see a woman's knees, especially because she wasn't wearing any tights under it. But the Potters live in a muggle neighborhood and never had any problem with how Petunia dressed. But Petunia wasn't a witch. Merlin, she was running in circles here.

She shook her head. It didn't matter. She swiped the mirrors back into her trunk and banged it shut. Lily stepped out of her room and went downstairs. Her father was sitting in the living room and watched the news, while her mum was in the kitchen.

"Hey mum." Lily gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. "Is everything all right?" She leaned her head against her mum shoulder and watched her cook. Her mum was a great cook and Lily always loved to cook with her. But not today.

"Fine." Her mum leaned her head against Lily's head for a moment. "Here. Do we miss something? Is it too bland?" She held out a spoon for Lily and tasted the sauce.

"No it's perfect. Maybe a bit of salt, but no pepper." For a moment Lily hesitated before continuing. "Wizard folk can drink some stuff that literally makes you breath fire, but for some reasons their food is always a bit blank." It was still strange to tell them about those little things.

"Ah." It seemed to be strange for them as well. Her mum added salt and rubbed Lily's back for a moment. It felt a bit awkward. It was a shock for her family how much they didn't know about Lily's everyday life and they felt excluded. Of course on a rational level they understood that Lily had no choice in excluding them, but on an emotional level they were hurt. Both sides tried to bridge this gap with more physical contact, but the awkwardness lingered, especially because their family was never one for much physical contact in the first place.

"Mum, what wine do you want for dinner? The Merlot or the Syrah?" Petunia came into the kitchen with two bottles of wine in her hands. "Oh, hey Lily."

If the new relationship with her parents was awkward, it was nothing compared to how the relationship with Petunia changed. It was strange. Lily had always imagined that her relationship with Petunia would improve once she told them everything. Because Petunia had always suspected that there was more to Lily's magic and school and world than she told them. Maybe she just needed some time to get used to it. Right?

"The Merlot should be fine today." Her mum answered. Petunia nodded and turned around to bring the other bottle back into the cellar. "She'll come around. It is just a lot for all of us, you know."

"Yes, I know." Lily sighed. "Will dinner be ready soon? Then I would go and pick up the Potters."

"Hmm, yes, ok. Maybe you could wait for Petunia." Her mum answered, returning her attention back to the food.

"I have to talk to them for a moment alone." At her mum's frowning face Lily hastily added. "Only to tell them, that if they don't understand anything muggle, they should ask me and if you don't understand anything magical they should let me explain. Wizards and witches like to explain complicated magic with more complicated magic." Her mum forced herself to smile at her explanation and possible to believe them as well. "See you in a bit, mum."

Only after she closed the front door, did it feel like Lily could breathe again. She had lived this life for the last five year and never before did it feel so strange and wrong. Not even the first year. Lily straightened herself and let her hand glide over her hidden wand for a second. Just to be sure that it was still there and knocked on the Potters' door. It opened nearly immediately and Sirius Black stood in front of her.

He is the white sheep in the Black family, she reminded herself and suppressed the reflex to reach for her wand. Dumbledore told her that he broke with his whole family because he didn't agree with their beliefs. He wasn't a threat.

"Hello Sirius." They had been kind of friends before she realized that he was a pureblood wizard born into a dark magic family. She shouldn't let this cloud her opinion about him.

"Eh, hi. We were just about to leave. Did we keep you waiting?" He looked at his watch and true enough it said 6:40pm and they were invited for seven.

"No, I just wanted to talk before dinner. Could I come in?" She smiled and hoped that he didn't see how nervous she was.

"Sure." He stepped aside and leaded her to the living room. With a smile she saw that the toaster and hair dryer had disappeared, but the rubber ducks stayed. "So what do we own this pleasure of having you pick us up? You know M- Remus isn't here yet again, so there is no hope for a quick snog for you." Sirius Black had a charming and beautiful grin and it made the world a bit brighter.

"As lovely as that would have been, I need to talk with all of you before we leave."

She just finished her sentence when Mr. Potter arrived in the door. "Of course, please take a seat until Mia and James are ready." He didn't seem surprised about her request, maybe he even expected it. He was an auror once and with everything going on the ministry was reactivating some old aurors again. Dumbledore told her that. Mr Potter didn't show her one specific seat, but let her choose where to sit. He probably dealt with many confused and scared muggleborns. Not that she was scared. She had everything under control. Once she sat down he sent Sirius to fetch James already. A moment later, she heard him call from the bottom of the stair screaming.

"James! Get your ass out of the shower, you're already wizened enough!"

Mr. Potter rolled his eyes and mumbled something like. "Could have done that myself."

"Monty, do you think I should wear the sapphire or ruby jewelry?" Euphemia Potter strode into the room, before she noticed Lily. She was wearing an elegant black robe, even if her husband was wearing a muggle suit. "Oh, hello Lily." She seemed unsure what to say to her. Her eyes looked conflicted.

"Good evening Mrs. Potter." Lily wasn't too sure what to say to the other witch as well. On a personal level they didn't really get along. They were both too headstrong for that. But Lily needed allies in this new country and Mrs. Potter was obviously still embarrassed about the way she had treated a muggleborn in her own house. "I hoped we can talk before dinner."

"Yes, of course. Monty suspected a visit from you the whole day." Mrs. Potter sat down next to her husband. Her back was stiff. "Tea?" She offered.

"Yes, thank you."

With a swing of her wand she summoned a tea set. The kettle and cups flew in the air and once filled on cup glided over to Lily. She took it out of the air and smelled it first.

"Green tea. One of my favorites." She only hesitated for a second before she took a sip. "I would advise you to wear the sapphires. The rubies are a bit too dark and your outfit needs a highlight."

"Thank you." Mrs. Potter took a sip herself. Her back was straight and stiff.

Thank Merlin they were exempted from any more forced small talk when James Potter entered the room. He looked over his shoulder and shouted at Sirius.

"Shut up, Sirius. You spent nearly an hour in the shower." He turned around after that.

And thank Morgana for gifting him with such a body. James stood in the doorway in a muggle dress shirt. An open muggle dress shirt. She could see his fine tan athletic chest and had to admit that Petunia knew how to pick her men. He stared at her with a daft expression, before apparently realizing his own state of dress and screeched in a surprisingly high pitch and turned away. She could see how his ears turned red.

"Sirius you turnip! Couldn't you warn me?" He fumbled with his shirt while his back was turned to her and his parents. Sirius was just laughing at him. When he was finished getting dressed he and Sirius sat down as well. The two boys had a confused look on their faces.

"Lily. Can I call you Lily?" Mr. Potter addressed her with a calm and smoothing voice. It gave Lily reason to look away from James, who was still red in the face, and focused her attention on the older Potter. He looked remarkable like his son. If you wanted to know how James would look fifty years from now, you just had to look at his father, who was a good looking man for his age. Lily nodded to his question. "Lily, I'm an auror." He stopped talking and watched her, as if he waited for some reaction from her.

"I know." It wasn't the reaction he had expected from the way his eyes widened. Lily explained her answer to him. "I asked Professor Dumbledore about all of you."

"I see, what did he tell you?" The other Potters stayed quiet, but watched her with interest.

"That I can trust you." He nodded to her answer and didn't ask for more details.

"Lily, I know that some of the things you need to explain to them are difficult and complicated and frightening." Need to? Lily thinned her lips in displeasure. The Potters all looked at her; Mr. Potter calm and dignified, Mrs. Potter with an understanding smile, James shifted uncomfortable in his seat and looked away when their eyes met and Sirius looked down with some kind of guilty expression on his face. "I can help you with that. I can explain this war for you."

"Stop right there." Lily held a hand up to make sure that nobody would interrupt her. "Let me make something clear here. This dinner is being played by my rules." Mr. Potter looked surprised even shocked. He uncrossed his legs and sat straighter. "I have the right to decide what my family is learning at what time. And that war-" She was gesturing between herself and the four wizards and witch. When Lily saw her hand shake just so slightly she balled it into a fist and brought it back to her chest. "-is not something we will discuss today."

"And what will today be about?" Mr. Potter asked her with renewed interest.

"About school, Hogwarts and having a teenager that is away for most of the year. About not knowing what everything in their life is about."

"That is-!" Mrs. Potter started, but Mr. Potter put a hand on her knee and made her shut up again.

"Why?" He asked.

"My family just learned about that there is a whole hidden world, that I'm part of and that they can't be part of. For the last two days, they acted like I'm a stranger that just happen to live there." It wasn't easy to say any of that and Lily avoided looking any of them in the eyes. "The war would be too much right now. It would frighten them, maybe even made them pull me out of school because they can't understand it."

"I see…" Mr. Potter looked at her and the rest of his family looked at him. "I don't agree with that. I think it would be better to come clear with them now."

"Thank you for the advice, we will do it my way." Mrs. Potter along with the two boys wanted to protest against her words, but Mr. Potter shook his head. "Like I'm allowed to decide. Accounting to Muggleborn law §4."

"Yes." The older man agreed. "Fine. What did you tell them exactly?"

So Lily repeated to them what she had shared with her family and the Potters grudgingly agreed to her plan, after Mr. Potter confirmed that, yes she was the one that could decide how much information her family would get about the magical world. There was a reason, why every muggleborn child had to say which family member they wanted to take with them to Diagon Ally. They finally all went over to dinner.

Dinner was strange. On one had her parents were very interested in everything the Potters had to say, but on the other hand they looked so out of their deeps.

"So you have these different subjects in school? This Charms and Potions and all this?" Her mum asked and Lily had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Her mother sounded so wary, like she expecting Lily to pull her leg and now the Potters would laugh in her face.

"Yes, those are some of the twelve subjects that are taught in Hogwarts." Mrs. Potter answered, no that did surprise Lily.

"Twelve? We had thirteen, if you count sport, and nobody does because it isn't graded, fourteen. Which one are you missing?" Lily had spent so much time preparing for Britain, that somehow such a fundamental like Hogwarts' class list slipped her mind.

The boys looked surprised at her as well. "Sport? You all have to play Quidditch?" That was James and from the way his eyes lit up just talking about Quidditch he reminded her of Marie-Claire and she had to smile.

"Quidd-something?" Petunia added to the conversation. She had been very quiet for most of the meal and there was a kind of bitterness in her voice. "Is that the game you told me about? The one that's useless and doesn't make sense?" But there was also curiosity.

At the affronted look on James' face and the barking laughter from Sirius, Lily felt herself blush. "How could you say something like that? About Quidditch?" James looked hurt at both Evans sisters, but more so at Lily, because really she should know better! According to him at least.

"I didn't say it like that…" Lily's cheeks must be glowing from the heat she felt. "I said that most of the game is perfectly fine." Petunia gave her a dark look. "Apart of course where you try to knock each other off your brooms into uncertain death." She added and at that her parents looked very alarmed. "I just think that the whole seeker and snitch thing is stupid, at least how it's done." James looked at her at like a kicked puppy. "I mean, hundred-fifty points are just a bit much. It takes the fun from the rest of the game." Lily crossed her arms. She was annoyed. Why did purebloods always look like she ran over their dog when she criticized that game? "You sit there in the stance and want to cheer for the team and celebrate each goal, but there is this voice in your head that said 'no that any of this matters if your seeker didn't make the catch'. For real, how often are there games where on team leads with fifteen goals? Then one team is obvious far better than the other team, but then the other team's seeker could catch that stupid ball and now we have to say the teams are equally good, because they tie? It's just unfair! I mean the game would still work if you don't give so many points for the snitch. Fifty points and the end of the game would be enough and it would make what happens through the rest of the game more interesting." She went into a huff. Challenging the two boys before her.

It looked like James ruffled his feathers and answered her with an arrogant voice. "That's how the game is played. It's tradition." He was one of the people that wouldn't let you trash talk their game.

"Really? Tradition? That's your best argument?" She rose an eyebrow at him and smirked. "Maybe you want to ask your friend next to you about some other wizard traditions and if that's reason enough to practice them."

Their mouth fell open.

James' lips quivered and the kicked puppy look intensified. Then he whimpered. It was a soft grief-stricken sound that crept out of his throat and for a moment Lily wasn't sure if she imagined it. The rest of the dinner party looked at him as confused as Lily felt. Well apart from his best friend, who snorted into his wine glass from laughter. It should be disgusting and it was! But Sirius Black had this kind of laugh that made you laugh as well. It was loud and honest and unafraid. Lily joined him with a chuckle of her own. After some time when he could finally control his laughter he stuck a hand out to her across the table. She gingerly took it and shook hands with him.

"Congratulations! You broke him!" He seemed indecent happy about the shock his friend had to live through. "You win the 'Shut-up-James-Potter-Award'. Impressive, normally Remus always gets that one." With his cat-that-ate-the-canary-grin she could easily see him as the prankster Dumbledore described them to be. "A young pretty witch knows about Quidditch and then decided that it's not the best thing ever. She even goes so far as to form good and reasonable arguments how to improve the game. Poor Jamesie-poo. You have to see, Quidditch is his only joy and sole reason to live." His serious tone of voice was betrayed by the fact that he could keep a grin off his face.

"Don't be overdramatic Sirius." Mrs. Potter told him. "It's not his 'sole reason to live'. You make it sound like he is obsessed with it." She turned to her parents. "James is actual a very good student and top of his class in many subjects." She obviously wanted to give a very favorable view of her son, but Sirius had none of it.

"Mia, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but he is." He put on a face of wise understanding that reminded her of Dumbledore. "You see, we tried to keep the truth from you, to keep you from getting hurt, but the truth is. James is Quidditch addicted. It is quite distressing for all those around him. Mainly me and the other Marauders. Especially before a game. Remus the gentle soul was ready last year to suffocate him with a pillow to make him shut up before the first game." Mrs. Potter wasn't amused by his little explanation. "Don't look at me like that Mia dear. Don't kill the messenger."

Lily had to grin, but then looked to her parents. She had just drive into a conversation that her parents couldn't be part of. But to her surprise they looked amused and when she locked eyes with them, their smiles were less stiff and more natural than before. Her father even laughed a little bit.

"It is reassuring to know that you don't know everything about your boy either." He was a bit more relaxed and carefree after that and refilled the wine glasses from the Potters and himself. "Lily, you said you had sport. Did you play that game as well?"

"Only when Marie-Claire forced all of us into it… Then I played chaser. But no, since second year I'm in the dadue class." Everybody looked at her confused and she explained the name further. "That stands for danse et duel."

"Dance and duel? That sounds like a random combination. How does that work? If somebody gets to touchy while dancing you start to duel? Or do you duel about your dance partners? Oh non tu scélérat! I'll dance with the fair lady today!" He mimicked some wand movements with is words.

Lily giggled a little before she explained. "No, but basics between magical chorographical dancing and dueling are quite similar. In both cases you have to see the others movement and predict his next position, you have to recognize his spells and you have to get if possible a feeling for the others magic, then you can even predict non-verbal or even wandless spells. The difference is that while dancing you trab into their magic and combine your spells, you learn how to tweak another person's spell, maybe by adding another spell to it or to make the spell bigger. When you duel you do the opposite, but with the same tools, you make the other spell useless or chance its direction, or even throw it back at the person, in a way steal the other spell."

"No, no, no!" Sirius shook his head and then glared at her. "Now I have disgusting images of dancing through the hallways with slimy gits and other Slytherins." He shuddered in disgust.

Apparently those images were enough to pull James out of his shocked state as well and he too pulled is face into a mask of disgust. "Don't ever suggest something like this. I feel like I need a shower just thinking about it."

The rest of the table laughed with them. From then on the dinner was easier and more relaxed. Her parents asked question after question, even completely boring once, like taxes and stuff like this. Later that evening her dad even decided to show them some of his magic tricks. Lily had been a bit embarrassed about it, because showing muggle magic tricks to real wizards and witches was silly, but she played along and the Potters seemed amused enough without mocking her father. The boys especially were fascinated by the card and sleight of hand tricks and tried to figure them out. They really did look like small children when they went through the deck of cards or tried to replicate the tricks.

It was nice. The two sets of parents sat together in the living room, while the four teenagers sat down in the backyard. They were comparing their schools a little bit.

"Wait, so you don't have TT?" Lily snapped her fingers, finally finding the subject that Hogwarts was apparently missing compared to Beauxbatons.

"What's TT?" James asked with an adorable look of confusion.

"Thaumatugie théorique. Theoretical thaumaturgy. You know the origin of magic, the evolution of it, when did humans became able to use it, what was there first, the muggle or the squip. Stuff like that." Lily explained, but the faces of the boys only became more clueless. "So yeah, you don't have it. I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad about it." She huffed and crossed her arms.

"Why?" Sirius asked her.

"It's one of those talking subjects, like history only with less known facts so you could get away with making things up on the fly, you just have to sell it well. Easy grades and all and it's kind of interesting to wonder about the nature of magic, but it is a talking subject and talking about magic is not nearly as exciting as doing magic." She was plugging some grass blades from the ground and threw them away absentminded.

Sirius looked shocked and flabbergasted at her explanation, before shouting: "Why don't we have that subject? We would ace it Prongsie!" He fell in his back in an overdramatic way. "See there are all my O's! In subjects they don't teach at Hogwarts…"

James only rolled his eyes at his friend and plugged some grass as well and threw it into Sirius' hair. That seemed to be some kind of major offence and it cased Sirius to tackle the slightly taller boy to the ground. They wrestled for some time with each other. James was winning. Lily had to giggle at their interactions and turned to Tuney to share a laugh with her, only to find her missing. She was on her way to the backdoor and Lily hurried to go after her.

"Tuney? What's up?" Lily grabbed her arm to stop her. Her sister didn't look at her. A clear sign that something was not right. "Why are you angry?"

"Nothing I just want to go in." She was still not looking at Lily and tried to free herself.

"I'm not trying to steal your friends." Lily hissed back. "They like you better anyway. So stop throwing a tantrum." That wasn't the most tactful way to say any of this, but politeness never had much space in a sibling relationship.

"It's not about that." Petunia riled back. "They have seen you only a couple of times, but already know more about your life than I do! It's going to be creepy boy all over again." Lily hadn't expected that and Petunia took the opportunity to free herself and stalk off.

Before Lily could really decide if she wanted to follow her sister and what to tell her, the boys called behind her. It looked like James was satisfied with his win and lording it over his friend and was no longer holding him down.

"What's up with Petty?" Sirius shouted. Lily looked at the now closed door and turned back to the boys.

"She is helping my parents with something." She sat down next to them again. "So what other subjects do you have?"

"Oh you know the normal once transfiguration, defense, charms, herbology, astronomy, history and potions and I choose to have, muggle studies, magical creatures and ancient runes." James explained and looked at her while doing to see if she was confused about any of it. At the last one she knitted her brows.

"Ancient runes? What exactly are you doing there?" Lily didn't have a class like that in Beauxbatons, but maybe it was close to a class she had. He gave her a short summery about the subject and Lily wiggled her nose in concentration. "Hmm, so you only focus on runes? We don't have a subject like this. The closest is probably systèmes…" Now it was James and Sirius' turn to look confused. "Systèmes de magie internationale. We learn about different kinds of magic, like voodoo, tao papers, magic music or shamans and druids and yes runes as well. But yours sounds a lot more in detail-oriented." Lily frowned at that thought.

"You don't look happy about it." Sirius remarked as he rolled over on his stomach and popped his head up on his hands.

"I like the subject and I want to keep it, but I'm not sure if I can." She sighed. All this were problems she hadn't really thought about before.

"I can help you catch up!" James replied with an eager gleam in his eyes. "I'm not that bad in the subject."

"That lazy bastard managed to get an O somehow. Not as good as Remus' O, but an O." Sirius injected, but James wasn't paying him any mind.

"We could sit down and go over the stuff. If you want to…" He ran a hand through his already messy hair.

"It's worth a shot." Lily knew that she was good in studying, but to catch up on three years, when she probably only knew the basics?

Sirius looked from one to the other with a horrorstricken face. "James? Did you just offer to do sch-scho-school." He coughed on that word. "Work? Voluntary? Even something we don't have to do?" He grabbed his friend and shook him. "Who are you and what have you done with James?"

"I'm just trying to be nice here…" James mumbled and was that a hint of a blush on his face? "And Remus is coming back soon and he will surely help as well…"

"Hmmm… " Sirius didn't sound convinced, but let go of James. He then turned to Lily. "Did you say you know how to voodoo and all that?"

"I know some of the basics and how the magic behind it works. But that's like saying you know transfiguration because you know how to turn a stick into a quill." She shrugged her shoulders.

"So no puppets with needles in them?" Sirius sounded very disappointed and his shoulders sagged down.

"Puppets pop up all over the world. In voodoo those puppets are mostly used for healing spells. The one you thing about is actual a form of European witchcraft. One that is on the brink of extinction. It's a form of dark arts and not many use those." Lily told them.

"My family is pretty dark artsy and we don't have those anywhere laying around and trust me the Black family has tons of dark arts stuff laying around." Sirius seemed nearly offended by the idea that there could be some dark arts his family wasn't dealing with.

"It the same as most forms of magical music. Most of this substitute magic that don't use wands in the European magic is muggleborn magic. Ways muggleborns, that were isolated from the magical community, would use to express their magic without formal training or wands. For some reasons music and puppets always pop up in those situations. That's why some magologists (wizard anthropologists) believe it to be the first form of human magic and that first wizards and witches where born when people where able to sing and create art." The boys looked at her with big eyes. "See that's what you learn in TT."

"You and Remus will bore each other to death with all those talks you will have…" Sirius concluded and James nodded along with him. Looking closer at them, their eyes seemed to glaze over.

Lily felt uncomfortable thinking about Remus. She never planned to get into a steady relationship with someone, especially a wizard. She had just looked for a distraction, a distraction from the magical world. She was glad that he was sick for the last couple of days.

Petunia didn't return until the Potters left and even after that she didn't show up to help clean up that evening. But her parents were delighted and happy. They loved the idea that Lily would go over to work on the school work with the two boys.

* * *

AN. I hope you like this chapter. I wanted to show the difference between Hogwarts and Beauxbatons a bit more, because I never liked the idea that their are the same only in French.

I want to thank all my reviewers. It is lovely to hear that people like my story and ideas and it is a great motivation to write more.

Please leave me a review if you liked it or have something I could improve.

Have a nice day.


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"What are you doing?" A distressed Sirius cried out when he entered the living room. "Is it enough that you agreed to tutor someone in the second lamest subject of all time, right after arithmetic, but you prepare for tutoring someone in it?"

Sirius stared at the different books about runes in disbelieve and horror.

"What about history?" James finished drawing one rune and put down his quill. "Didn't that earn a place on the most boring list?"

"Are you kidding? We learn about war, battle, scheming, backstabbing and daring rescues. It's only Binns that makes it boring." Sirius flopped down on the couch and swung his feet on the couch table, on top of a book James was just using for a translation.

James glared at him and pushed his feet off the table. "I promised to help her out with this and it's not that much work. Those are just the notes from last year for the OWLs." That last part was at least a half-lie. Of course it was a lot of work, even if it wasn't so long ago that he had revisited everything. He had met with Lily for the last three days a two or three hours each to go over runes. She was very able and willingly to learn and she had borrowed a couple of his old books from him as well.

Sirius rolled his eyes at him and placed his feet back on the table. "Why do you even worry about it today? Moony is coming back today and he can take over the tutoring for you and you can hop back on your broom."

James pushed his feet to the ground again. "First, we don't know when Moony and Wormy are coming today and second you make it sound like I wasn't playing Quidditch for the last couple of days."

Feet back up. "All that studying can't be good for you. In the end you will do some high quality homework and the teacher are going to catch up on the fact that you normally just never bother to care about the homework."

"Keep you scruffy feet off my books." This time he not only shoved Sirius feet away, but pushed him off the couch.

"Hey!" Sirius stood up and rubbed his mistreated backside. "Fine be a berk." He got back to his feet and stretched.

"Sorry Sirius, but we'll from now on have NEWT classes and I just managed to get the grade for potion. A couple of points less and it would have been an A and not an E. You need potions for so many things, for auror or healer. It got me thinking ok…" James rubbed his face in frustration. "Maybe we should take all those classes more serious." When James got the OWL results, that one had been a shock. He wasn't that bad in potions, he had always got a comfortable and good E in the subject and that had made him cocky enough not to learn very much for the exam last year.

"You mean in case you don't go pro-Quidditch player?" Sirius sat down next to him on the couch. He was still joking, but he wasn't mocking.

"Yeah. I mean there is so much going on in the world right now. Maybe I should do something else, something about that. Be an auror like dad. And even if I become a pro, it's not like I could play Quidditch forever. With thirty-five you are ancient on the field. What would I do after that?"

"Well maybe then Minnie will be headmistress and you could become transfiguration professor." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at him. "Professor Potter. You could give slimy death eater Slytherins detention and stuff."

"Oh Merlin no, teaching sounds terrible. All those snotty first years." James shivered at the thought and both boys started to laugh at the idea.

After some time they calmed down and Sirius asked him. "But why do think about auror or anything really now? You are good enough for pro-Quidditch, you know it."

"She is our age and she was scared of us or at least worried. How fucked up is everything if a muggleborn our age comes here and her first react when meeting other wizards is to be worried about your family. She didn't first ask about Hogwarts or even Diagon Ally. She was gripping her wand and ready to protect her family from us." He gestured helplessly between them. "Are there already so many fucked up people, that that is her first reaction?"

"To be fair you were sitting next to a Black…" Sirius shrugged his shoulders, and then he mustered James for moment. "Ok, I'll now channel my inner Peter and will tell you about those inner feelings you never knew you had." He squished his eyes and bit his tongue before mimicking Peter's squeaky voice. "And now you feel guilty about the situation and by helping her appear helpful and harmless." He changed his voice back to normal. "How was that?" He grinned widely.

"Spot on." James answered and felt sheepish while ruffling his hair. "Is that stupid of me?"

"Nah… I get it. You just want to prove that you are not like _them_." The tone Sirius used when saying them was normally reserved for his family and part of James asked himself how much of what Sirius did was to prove that he wasn't like them. "Hey do you have any idea when Moony and Wormtail will be here?" He sat back down again, but without his feet on the table.

"I assume as soon as Moony can grab Wormy and runs." He grinned back at Sirius. Remus would always go over to the Pettigrews and from there both would floo over here. Something else that always happened was that Mrs. Pettigrew would pinch Remus cheeks and try to force-feed the 'poor half-starved boy'. All marauders, even a deeply embarrassed Peter, agreed that Mrs. Pettigrew had some kind of weird fixation on Remus and Remus was just too polite to say something against it. So he always ended up running away with Peter the first chance he had.

"Oh no, Remus my dear, you look like you haven't eaten anything all day." Sirius swooned and cooed in mockery, while trying to pinch James' cheeks. Both boys burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Mrs. Potter stood behind them. They hadn't noticed her enter.

"Nothing mum." He grinned at her, "Are you going out?" She had her handbag at her arm and checked herself in the mirror next to the fireplace.

"Yes, I'm meeting Augusta in Diagon Ally. I'll be back in the evening. Minx has some snacks for you in the kitchen." She waved her wand and some stray strands of hair returned to their place in her braid. "What are your plans for today?"

"I'll enjoy life and the last days of freedom before returning to our educational prison and Jamesie here, is being a swot again and will help Ms. Evans with her runes." Sirius grinned cheeky at her.

His mum paused for a moment in taming her hair. "That's nice. Have fun."

She and Lily had a strange and complicated relationship with each other. They really didn't like each other. His mum thought Lily was rude, obnoxious and she never liked the open confidence that Lily showed in girls. She thought a girl should influence people with soft words and impeccable manners and not with sarcasm and brute force. Seeing this made James quite grateful to be born a boy, because he wasn't so sure how well he would have got along with his mother if he had been a girl.

Lily on the other hand thought his mother was a hypocrite and just didn't like any woman or girl threatening her autocracy about the women in the neighborhood. James would of course immediately and loudly deny that claim, while silently in the safety of his own mind agree with it.

So they didn't like each other. What was strange or complicated about it? That they acted like they liked each other. His mum was still embarrassed and horrified that she had said something to the young muggleborn that made her question the moral convictions and aliments of the Potter family. While Lily obviously didn't want to antagonize the Potter family more than necessary. She had talked with his father before and asked him to keep her family save. Apart from that her own mother pretty much ordered her to be nice to his mum.

So each time the two saw each other they would smile thin-lipped and express their 'delight' to each other, before one of them would make an excuse to leave the others present, which would make that one equally grateful and annoyed.

When James had expressed concern about it, his father had pulled him and Sirius aside and told them. "No! You don't interfere with that. Leave them to their antics and hope that they don't pull you in. When two women are at each other throat you stay way. Anything else would be suicidal and stupid." Wise words of a wise man. The three male residents of the Potter household kept themselves out of this disagreement. Minx, the little houseelf, on the other hand supported her mistress completely and unquestionable. Whenever Lily would come over the houseelf would serve tea with a scowl and the tea cup would always land in front of her with a small clink. At least until yesterday when Lily informed her that if Minx didn't want to serve Lily, Lily didn't want her to serve her anything and dismiss the little creature. James had never seen Minx so hurt and insulted. The fact that James hadn't sent Lily away immediately leaded to his cups and plates clinking when she served him. Oh, well you can't have everything and the food still tasted divine.

James woke up from his thought when his mum gave him a kiss on the cheek and one for Sirius, before she stepped into the green flames. It was a bit embarrassing but apart from Sirius nobody saw it. Sirius on the other hand enjoyed that kind of affection

"Ok, I'm leaving you with your books and I'll eat something." With this words Sirius disappeared towards the kitchen. James waved him off and sorted through his notes from last year. This would be a lot easier with Remus here, a small voice in his mind told him, but for some reasons he didn't like the idea of giving the responsibility to teach Lily Ancient Runes to Remus. Strange.

Just thinking of his werewolf friend worked like a charm and the fireplace lit up green and Remus stepped out of the flames rubbing his cheeks. A moment later, Peter stepped out after him.

"Sorry about my mum, Remus." The smaller boy mumbled.

"It's alright, Peter." Remus wanted to smile, but it turned into a grimace and a painful look crossed his face and he rubbed his cheek again. They both looked around and their faces lit up when seeing James on the couch. "Hey Prongs."

"Hey, you are early." James was confused why he wasn't really happy about it.

"Yeah, Moony here, was a bit inpatient. I wonder why." Peter pocked Remus in the ribs with a sly smile. Remus in return turned red and looked at James papers.

He knitted his brows. "James?" He spoke slow and unsure. "Are you doing Ancient Runes?" Remus looked really confused and it was true that he normally had to force the other three marauders to do any kind of homework over the holidays.

"What?" Peter shouted and his eyes darted over the different books and papers. His jaw fell open.

"Yes, it's…" James stopped. Why did he not want to tell Remus about his study sessions with Lily? He would know about it soon, but in this moment James felt protective about it. Like it was a secret between him and her, which was stupid, because it wasn't. His parents and Sirius knew about it and her parents and sister knew as well.

Peter's lips quivered and he looked like he would burst into tears, before turning his accusing eyes to Remus. "We told you! Pats and I told you again and again. You should not force James to learn Runes with you all the time!" Last year Remus had forced James with him once a week to learn runes in the library under loud protest of the other marauders. "See what you did?!" Peter pocked Remus in the chest. "You turn him into you!"

"That was never my intention…" Remus looked confused and even a bit guilty. "James you don't have to do that… I mean, you of course have to do your homework and I plan to do that with you this week, but-" He scratched the back of his head, searching for words.

"How could you Remus!" Peter shouted out. James was both amused about his friends antics and annoyed that both seemed to assume that sitting down and study was so out of character for him. He wasn't that lazy, right? James and the other two in the living room where to caught up in their discussion to hear the knock on the front door. "If he turns into a weredeer next month, I'm going to blame you, because you infected him with your brains or something."

"I didn't infect him with brains." Remus said, then he paused and looked at James. "Right?"

"I had brains before I studied with you, you know…" James crossed his arms and huffed when both looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Prongs you are nearly as lazy as Patfoot and he once put his cereals into his tea because he was too lazy to eat them and drink tea separately." All three shuddered at the memory.

Before James could defend himself against those accusations the double doors of the living room flew open. They banged against the walls and were about to swing back, but Sirius and his widespread arms kept them open. He stood there for a moment as if he was expecting thunderous applause that didn't come. He sighed and stepped aside and gave view on Lily's unmistakable red hair. She still wore it open and it fell down her shoulders in waves. Unconsciously James sat up straighter and his hand jumped to his hair, ruffling through it.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw how Remus and Peter's eyes widened and Remus was cursing under his breath.

"Now before I can let you in here, we are a non violent household and I have to ask you go in there unarmed." Sirius had turned to Lily and claimed that with a far too serious voice. James was about to jump up. Of course she wouldn't have to give up her wand. What the hell was Sirius thinking? But then he pointed at a bottle in her hand. It was filled with a black liquid and had a red label on it. "We really can't risk you throwing it at anyone here."

James fell down in his seat again and grinned. Little Padfoot was still hung up on the cup incident. He would watch how that stunt plays out for him. His entertainment was disturbed by Peter, who was trying to close his books and shove anything off the table, including the open inkwell and his quills.

"Hey I was working on that." James complained, but Peter only hushed at him and James tried to protect his hard work.

"Sirius, you will now let me in there or I'll bash this bottle over your head." There was no joking undertone in her voice, it was just deadpan with a completely emotionless face.

"Ah, that's what I like about intelligent women. They can always argue their position in a relatable way. It's good to know that this bottle in your hands in completely save and harmless. Please come in." Sirius stepped aside and even invited her in with a bow. So much for Gryffindor bravery…

She rolled her eyes and stepped into the living room. Her eyes fell on Remus and Peter and a smirk played on her lips. "Hey, you guys are back."

Peter fought even harder with him and threw one of his text books behind the couch; under loud complains from James, which stopped, when Remus stumbled forward. He looked clumsy and unsure and a bit sick. But once he stood in front of Lily, he pulled her into a kiss. Both his hands were on her face and she was so surprised that for the first few seconds. After that she seemed to return the kiss and Remus turned them around and one hand left her face. Peter had stopped his attempts to throw away his stuff for a moment to blush and then join Sirius in his wolf whistling. Remus waved a his free hand behind her back. James wasn't sure what he wanted and it was difficult to think past the stone that seemed to settle in his guts. Lily looked a bit awkward. The one hand that was holding the bottle hung awkwardly next to her body and the other rose to Remus shoulder before gently pushing him away.

"Fancy seeing you as well." She told Remus, who blushed immediately. She turned around again to greet James and Peter and Remus looked like he wanted to stop her but didn't know how. "Hey James, hey Peter." She took a step closer to them and Peter exchanged a panicked look with Remus.

Then Peter did something nobody, probably not even Peter expected him to do and what made Lily stop in her way to stare at him with a raised eyebrow and threw Sirius into a fit of hollowing laughter. Peter threw himself on top of the couch table, over all of James notes, knocking over the ink. He lay on the side, his head popped up with his arm and smiled his biggest and brightest smile. Peter lay there, on top of his ancient runes notes and books, like an anatomy model for act students, only with thankfully more clothes on.

James stared at him gobsmacked. Remus hid his face in his hands. Lily looked confused and wary and Sirius started to laugh so much, he couldn't breathe.

"Hello Lily. I didn't expect to see you there!"

"And I didn't expect to see you like this…" Lily and Peter stared at each other and while Peter tried to keep a too wide smile on his face an awkward silence stretched between them. Only Sirius laughter was heard in the room.

"Prongs you didn't tell them either!" Sirius finally managed to press out between laughers. "I didn't tell them and you didn't tell them and now they didn't know and Wormy is trying to hide your books!" He was bursting into laughter again and James had to admit that it kind of was funny. Even if his ancient runes work may or may not be ruined because of it. He started to chuckle and when he looked up he saw that Lily's shoulders shook as well.

"Well that what I call commitment to the statue of secrecy." She giggled and stepped closer to Peter, who looked up with a confused face. She leaned over him and the unusual close proximity to a girl made Peter blush like crazy. "Now if you would please get of those books. I want to read them."

She must know that Peter wasn't used to have a girl's attention on him and only him. James was sure of it from the way she crooked her hip and pronounced each of her words to make her lips plum.

"You- you're a witch!" Peter stuttered.

"Yes, I am." She leaned back and gave Peter to room to stand up.

He looked down at the table and his ink sullied clothes and turned red once again. "Sorry James…"

"It's fine. You didn't know." James was still grinning madly and looked over his books and notes, most were ok and the rest could be saved later. So no harm done right?

He looked over to Remus. Sirius had swung his arm around his shoulder and was still shaking with laughter. Remus looked pale and a bit shell shocked. "A witch? I- oh- none of you appeared to-" It was a rare sight to see Remus speechless.

"Muggleborn. Only one in the family for at least four generations." She flopped down on the couch next to James and pick up some of his notes. She started to twist a lock of her hair around her finger. She always did that when they studied. At least in the beginning, after some time she would push her hair out of the way and then when it would keep falling back, she would twist it up in a messy and loose bun that she secured with a hair band and two of her muggle witting things, most often the wooden once. Sirius never stayed long enough when they studied to see any of this and the fact that now the other marauders would see all those things bothered James in a way he couldn't explain.

"Ok." Remus voice sounded a bit squishy and James could see a hint of panic in his eyes, like he often did, when something unexpected happened and Remus wasn't prepared for anything like this. Finding out your muggle summer girlfriend is in fact a witch and would join you in school, wasn't apparently one of those endless scenarios Remus made plans for. And Remus had a plan for the chance that one day every toilet in Hogwarts would disappear! He told them, when they were drunk after a Quidditch game last year. "I didn't notice."

"Well obviously I'm much better at pretending to be a muggle than you guys are." She didn't even look up from his notes for that, but her tone was condescending and it made him feel a bit stupid for even attempting it.

"Hey! We are great muggles!" Sirius, Mr. Pureblood who hadn't even seen a muggle until he was thirteen, tried to defend their honour in pretending to be muggles.

Now she did look up for a moment, only to give Sirius a look at screamed 'really? You think so? That's cute…'. "Sirius, you are terrible at it. The only one of you that half way managed to sell it was Peter and that only because he kept his mouth shut."

Sirius put on his puppy-eyes. They were big and round and shimmered, while his lower lip quivered and then he made the sound. It was a mix between a whimpering and a sob. James hadn't seen a single female who was immune to it.

Lily put up a good fight, before she craved. "You're not completely hopeless. It's just all those small things, that add up, you know. A muggle wouldn't notice must likely. You even managed to fool me for a bit…"

"Yeah!" All sadness disappeared from Sirius voice and pumped a fist into the air.

"There are still some things, you need to work on, that are just strange for muggle." She wouldn't admit total defeat to him.

"What are those?" James asked her. He was really interested in what made him stand out as a wizard to her.

"First, your ridiculous fascination with a door bell." She held up on finger and glared at Sirius and at him.

"But it's fun." James and Sirius shouted at the same time. Lily rose her bottle only for a second and Sirius shut up to glare at her.

"Second, you didn't know where the train station in your own city was." She raised an eyebrow at James.

"I'm sure there are lots of muggle that don't know that!" James defended himself and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Not over the age of seven. Third, accounting to Tuney none of you has any cinema etiquette. Really, only little children or assholes talk while watching a movie in the cinema." She shook her head at that one.

"But the shark was right behind them! And the music was playing how could they not hear the music?" James answered immediately.

Lily didn't dignify that with an answer and continued. "Fourth, you are uncomfortable with paper money and instead carry around coins."

"Paper money didn't make any sense!" The other three nodded along with James even Remus.

"It makes lots of sense, but I'm not giving you a lecture in economy. Fifth, you didn't find parchment on my desk strange at all."

"Of course not, what else should you write on? Oh wait your paper book thing!" James tried to open her bag, but she slapped his hand away and gave him an evil eye.

"Yes a notebook. Sixth, none of you guys knew how to play football…" She rolled her green eyes at him. "Every single British child, no person, knows how to play football, everyone apart from wizards and witches… Don't look at me like this, football is important to muggles. I'm pretty sure not knowing how to play football is on every teacher's checklist if they have to call social service, you know huge red flag."

"Really? Football then has a lot more cultural importance than I thought. I mean muggle have so many sports…" James looked at the other once and they all looked as surprised as he felt.

"Well it is, at least here in Britain. If any of you ever want to go undercover as a muggle, know how to play and talk football, it's the easiest way into a group. My dad is right now playing football with some guys from his new job. You can get away with lots of things, but not knowing football is bizarre." Then she looked a bit sheepish and added in a less aloof voice. "And if all that isn't enough to tip someone off, Remus, I could feel your wand down at the lake." Only a heartbeat after she finished at sentence she turned to Sirius. "And no, Sirius, not that wand."

Sirius only laughed some more at her words and slapped Remus on the back, who by the way was still looking a bit pale, but not as much as before. "Normally I would ask if we can keep her, but she is a Gryffindor now! So we are keeping her!" He grinned at Lily, who only raised an eyebrow. "It's the best. We can make her look like that at people and they will feel small and insignificant!" This even made her giggle.

She shook her head before looking at James again. "So are we doing any runes today, or do you need the day to cuddle your boys?" He felt heat rise on his cheeks and he glared at her in return.

"I have something prepared, if you want to." He turned around on the couch and looked for the notes and books Peter had thrown behind it in his hurry to hide magic from her. "Give me a few minutes to get everything in order again." He looked through everything and sorted it. It probably didn't look like it to anyone else, but there was a real system behind the way he threw notes and books on the low table in front of them. "Remus, you could join us." He added as an afterthought. Remus was probably a better tutor anyway. He was already teaching some of the low classes.

"Yeah sure." Remus said and sat down on the couch as well.

* * *

AN.

It still takes a bit time before they go to Hogwarts, but there are just a few things Lily would try to do before that. The biggest one is to become friends with some people before going there. She knows that she will have to face some problems and she doesn't want to do it alone.

Apart from that this story is at least a bit about Lily's and Petunia's changed relationship and that is difficult to deal with at Hogwarts, so I hope you will stay a bit longer with me.

Please leave a review and help me to become better and to motivate me some more to write.

Have a nice day.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Petunia. In the end her relationship with Remus came down to Petunia. Lily had meant it when she first told Remus that she only looked for a distraction and summer thing. She wanted a distraction from the wizarding world. But arguable, a wizard wasn't the best distraction from that. Lily actual intended to break whatever it was between them off, but then Petunia came to her and reached out with an olive branch. After days were both feared that their relationship would go back to frozen mess it was after Severus had showed up and told them about magic until Lily's first holidays home. They didn't say it out loud, but neither one wanted to go back there. So when Petunia asked if Lily could set her up on a double date with James, Lily said yes immediately. She felt a tiny twist in her stomach when she convinced James of it. He hadn't looked completely happy about Lily asking him on a double date with Petunia and Remus, but what did he know? He should be grateful to go out with a girl like Tuney! Probably. It was not like Lily knew a lot about what kind of date Petunia was.

Arguable, a lot of time on their dates was spend Lily and Tuney talking and James and Remus talking. But everybody had fun! Even if Lily knew that she didn't really like Remus in that way. Sure he was not a half bad kisser, but really she liked him more as a friend.

Was it morally completely right that Lily dated Remus, only to feel closer to her sister, maybe not. Probably not. But Lily had the feeling, that Remus wasn't that into a relationship with her as well. He just didn't know how to break up with her. That was actual an important thing to know in life. To tell someone NO. Really she was doing him a favor, by not breaking up with him yet and giving him the chance to do it! The goodness of her heart knew no borders. Even Lily had to laugh at that thought.

This situation was going on now for nearly a week and in one week Lily and the boys would leave for Hogwarts. It was strange to go to school with everybody. Today was the first day of muggleweek in Beauxbaton.

"Are you sure about this Lily? I mean it doesn't sound very exciting, does it?" Petunia asked while they both stood in front of the mirror. "Wouldn't it get boring?" They had made plans with all four boys to visit a shopping center. Petunia hadn't been a big fan of the idea from the beginning.

"Nay, we go there with purebloods. I can promise you this; make puebloods interact with muggle stuff and they will be the entertainment." She twisted her hair up and held it there. "What do you say Tuney, up or down?" She turned to her sister.

Petunia bit her lips before answering. "Up, I think."

Lily watched herself critically in the mirror once more. "You're right and it's too hot to wear them down anyway. Let's go."

Lily pulled her sister along out of the door and to the meeting point. The four boys were already waiting. When they saw Petunia and Lily, Sirius jumped up and ran to them, like a little kid on too much sugar.

"There you are! You have to show me ALL the muggle thingies! I even took my Muggle Studies book with me!" Sirius pulled them both in a hug, before getting his book out to show them. It was difficult to read the title, because he was waving it around so much. 'Muggles – The allure of imitation magic'. What a spectacular stupid title.

"Of course Sirius." Lily petted him on the head. "Now let us go to the rest and we can finally see all the muggle stuff."

"Right away, my pretty ladies." He had an easy grin on his face and flung an arm around each of the girls to lead them back to the other three boys.

Lily greeted Remus with a kiss on each cheek and out of the corner of her eye she could see that Petunia and James apparently only exchanged a slightly stiff hug. Meanwhile Sirius was hopping from one leg to the other and urged them to hurry. Lily had to grin at his antics.

"Tuney, pardon Pet, should it tell us something that the guy most happy to see us is neither of the guys we date?" She smirked at her sister.

"Probably that you girls have the sane mind not to date someone with the endless energy of a sugarhigh squirrel and the attention span of a flubberworm." James challenged her right back with his arms crossed he leaned down to Lily.

"Hey! I'm standing right here." Sirius protested with a pout look on his face, before turning to Petunia. "Now pretty Petty, forget what that berk said and let me tell you, it's not too late for you to correct your mistake and tell that one to get lost and to fall into my arms." He winked at her and swung an arm around her shoulder. Petunia blushed at his offer and looked at Lily with wide eyes, but before Lily could think something up, James had something to say.

"How is it that you only try to steal my girl and not Moony's?"

"Please…" Sirius shook his head as if it was a very stupid question to begin with. "First, Moony is a lot scarier than you. Second, the first thing she did when we met was to throw a cup at me! I'm not subjecting myself to this kind of domestic abuse!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Get moving or I will show you some abuse." She shoved him into motion.

"Such a violent woman…" Sirius protested some more, but they finally were on their way.

Going to a muggle shopping centre was one of the most fun things you could do with purebloods. They were like little children and often just lack the intuitive how to use muggle things. They had the adorable cluelessness of a baby elephant before it figures out how to use its trunk. And maybe, if you caught her drunk on a fantastic day when she owned you a huge favor she would admit that it reminded her how she felt when dealing with magical artifacts. She, of course, never allowed herself to marvel at them so openly, at least when other people were around, but artifacts were one piece of magic that always made her stop and think, when her pureblood friends just naturally had an idea what to do.

Right now the boys were in awe of a can opener of all things. Lily and Petunia stood a few meters away from them and watched their antics. Remus tried to explain the unknown technology.

"You see and when you turn this turn thing, that little one is turning and cutting open the can, while this thing keeps the can in place." Remus talked with the same tone he used to explain runes to her, only even slower. How the boys could stand it, without telling him to stop threading him like idiots, she will never know. Or maybe the answer was more obvious than she thought, because the other three boys actual looked confused and unconvinced. Apparently Lily had judged to quickly and Remus tone was warranted.

"I don't know Remus." James was looking very skeptical. "Are you sure it's a can opener?"

"Of course I'm sure! If only for the fact that it's written right here!" Remus pointed at the paper sign that hung from the handle.

Their raised eyebrows suggested that some piece of paper weren't very convincing evidence and Remus looked like he wanted to bash them over the head with the can opener. "Remus you see, it doesn't look like a can opener." Sirius explained to him.

"What? You don't even know what a can opener is!"

"Sure we do." Peter claimed and pulled out a book out of nowhere. After a quick search in the index he would open a page and show it to Remus. James and Sirius nodded along with him. Remus just buried his face in his hands and mumbled something.

Lily started to giggle and turned to Petunia to laugh at the boys together. But her sister was intensively looking at some pots and no in the direction of their companions. "Petunia?"

"It's embarrassing." Her sister hissed back at her. Turning more to her, Lily could now see that Petunia's face was deep red.

"It's fun. What is your problem?" Lily was a bit taken back by her behavior.

"People are watching us. It's worse than in the cinema." There was some real anger hidden underneath her embarrassment.

"What do you care what those people even think?" Lily stopped giggling and looked at Petunia for real. "They are just some random people."

"Well of course you don't care." Petunia bit back. "You and the rest of your folk disappear next week. But I will stay and live here all year and meet those people whenever I get groceries. And here they see me with people that don't know what a bloody stupid can opener is."

"They are- WE are stupid teenagers. Nobody really cares if we cause a bit havoc. That's what people expect from us." Lily rolled her eyes. Why was Petunia so overdramatic? But Petunia only stared at her with pursed lips. "I will try to calm them down. We will look through the rest of the store quickly and you can pretend not to know us until we are out, ok? And then we will get something to eat."

Lily stalked over to the boys and found it a little unfair that she now had to play babysitter for them. Petunia had made friends with them first. "I can promise you that it's a can opener. Can we now go on?"

They didn't look completely convinced, but didn't dare to disagree with her. They whispered to each others, before James declared: "Ok, we will get one of them!"

"Do you even have money? Tu- Petty and I will not pay for anything here." The idea that the boys could go on a shopping tour with her money wasn't a very comfortable thought.

"Of course not!" James looked insulted at the idea that she would pay for them. "We went to Gringotts yesterday and changed some money." He looked very proud when he lifted a small handbag. The huge bulge at its bottom was a telltale sign that something heavy was in the bag. Lily opened it and true to her expectations, the bag was completely filled with coins. Wizards were just uncomfortable with paper money. "The goblins first gave us the money with some paper wrapped around it. We still have the papers, because we weren't sure if that's this paper money business." He pulled out a stack of papers and showed them to her.

"No. Those are the wrapping papers around stacks of coins to make it easier to count them." Lily answered.

"So we don't need them?"

"No, now there are pretty useless."

"Ok." He looked like a happy and excited puppy. "By the way did you know that muggle have lots of different money? The goblins said that there are like over 160 kinds of muggle money? Why do they need so many?"

This made same alarm bells ring in her ears. "How much and into what currency did you change your money?"

"Sirius and I discussed this for some time." James started.

"And I convinced him that we should probably tell them we need English muggle money." Sirius added proudly.

"If there is English muggle money, are there Scottish and Welsh muggle money- moneies? How do they call different kinds of money?" Peter threw some questions in. All of the boys looked at her with childish excitement.

"Currency. And no there is no Scottish or Welsh currency, but there is the Irish pound in the Republic of Ireland and the rest uses the British pound." Lily asked their questions quickly, before returning to her own question. "So you changed into pounds? How much did you exchange?"

"We weren't sure how much we would need. So we changed fifty galleons. Is that enough?" James looked worried that he would run out of money. Considering that one galleon was exchanged for a bit over six pounds and he now had over three hundred pounds with him, in coins, that shouldn't be a problem.

"I think so…" Not if she could get any control over them.

"And then we got curious about all that other money and we told them to exchange fifty more galleons into all the other kinds of money." Sirius told her and he and James wore matching wide grins.

"Ok and where did you put that other money?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"In there as well." James answered and pointed at his money bag, as if it was the only possible answer to that question.

"Brilliant." She started to giggle, because really the only alternative would be a terrible headache. "Let's go. You can buy your can opener." She turned to the checkout, but the boys didn't follow. When she turned around again, Lily looked into four sets of big puppy eyes. "What?"

"We don't have any can…" James said.

"To open with our can opener." Sirius finished. The four set of eyes turned even bigger and more pleading.

"Of course. You need cans to open." Lily laughed out loud. "You know what? You don't need me to hold your hand. Go and find them!" They looked at her in excitement and started to push their cart down the lane. Or at least tried to, first they had to fought over who would be allowed to push it. "But stay together please and leave the muggles alone." She shouted after them.

She turned around and meet Petunia's less than impressed glare. Her arms were crossed and she trapped her foot. "What was that about getting out of here?"

"Petunia, this is like Disneyland for them. They never had the chance to interact with the muggle world so freely. They see all this things and are amazed." Lily just couldn't deny them this feeling to get to know a new world. If it was just a little bit like what she felt when she first stepped into the Magical world, she just couldn't tell them to leave. "You like James, right?" Lily knew that this was playing dirty, but she had the feeling James wouldn't have a problem that she used him in this way. "Let him have a bit fun."

This argument seemed to convince Petunia at least enough that she stopped protesting, but she refused to walk around the store with them. Lily rolled her eyes and searched for the four wizards. They didn't stay together, of course they didn't stay together. She found Peter with the cart by the canned food. They had around twenty cans in their cart and Peter was still looking for more.

"Lily, one thing I really don't understand about this whole can and can opener business. Why do muggle even put the food in the cans? Why not just store it?" He held up a can of tomato soup.

Lily made him put it away, because really twenty was more than enough and explained to him. "It's a way to preserve food, without magic. You put it in a can and it will be still good to eat a year or longer from now."

Peter was reasonable impressed with this technology and followed her how she ordered him to. Next one she found was Remus. He was in the print and browsed through some magazines. She allowed him to pick four and made him follow her as well.

Sirius found them. He ran up to them shouting excited and with his arms full with stacks if plastic drinking cups. He grinned like a maniac.

"Do I even want to know?" Lily asked. Resignation was creeping up on her. Maybe she should just let the boys create chaos and lean back to watch.

"I need them! All of them!" Sirius dumped the dozens of stacks into the shopping cart. Peter and Remus just shrugged their shoulders. It seemed a good enough explanation for them. Who was she to disagree?

They wandered around the store for the last of the Shatterbrains. They were adamant that they were called Marauders, but Lily preferred Shatterbrains. She finally found him and it was worst than she feared. James found Petunia and apparently pulled her along to a little info booth about a new electric drill. Petunia's lips were in a very thin line and the tension drew lines on her neck. Her arms were crossed and she stared angry, embarrassed and murderous at James, who didn't notice a thing. He was happily chatting with the poor guy at the booth. The man, probably only a few years older than them, had a wide belly and very little neck. He altered between glaring angrily at James and throwing admiring looks at Petunia. Lily hurried over.

"So you don't need one of the string things, because the lighting is trapped in this box?" James asked with pure fascination and held the accumulator closer to his face. "And you don't even hear any thunder in the box!"

The drill boy clearly thought that James was mocking him. "You- you disres-" He started to raise his voice.

Lily interrupted him. "Oh you found him!" She stopped next to all three of them and sent a grateful smile to Petunia and the drill boy. "I just turn around for second and off he was. I mean, he is so excited to be here on his own. Petunia, thank you so much for keeping an eye on him." She turned around to James. "What did I tell you about talking to strangers?" She talked to him as if he was a disobedient five year old child.

Her attitude created several reactions. Drill boy seemed confused and his anger faltered a little. Petunia looked annoyed at her and James looked first a bit confused and then very, very amused.

"But that nice man was explaining things to me, Lily!" He now sounded like a five year old as well. He held up a drilling machine. "It can make holes in a wall and screw things together. Mugg- You can build whole houses with this!" He pulled the trigger a couple of times and watched how it turned.

"Fascinating..." She tried to get the drill machine from him but James held it up high.

"Does he belong to you?" Drill boy asked.

Lily turned to him with a bright smile. "James? Yes, I watch and guide him today." She patted James on the shoulder and turned to Drill boy with a bright smile. Someone should tell him that is moustache looked ridiculous. Lily ignored the look James shot at her.

"Is he retarded?" The huge man huffed, seriously a diet would do wonders to his life expectancy. For a moment even Lily felt speechless, but she got past that fast.

"Wow to see the famous British politeness up close…" She mumbled to quiet that only James could hear her. The young wizard coughed to hide his laughter. "He goes to a special school that is able to give him the necessary attention to his specific talents. Isn't that right James?"

"Yes, such a nice school! We live in a castle." He was really doing an amazing job selling their story.

"Lovely really. Now James, we have to go to the others." Lily put a hand on his arm and gently pulled him away from drill boy and Petunia. "Say goodbye to Vernon." Lily told him after she glanced at drill boy's nametag.

Vernon grunted when Lily pulled James away and as soon as they were maybe ten meters away from them, both dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"Merlin, that guy is a git" James managed to say between laughter.

"Yes! But please for magic's love don't ask any muggle questions when I'm not around." Lily answered when they arrived where Lily left the other three boys. Remus was holding Sirius by the back of his shirt to stop him from running off.

"What's so funny?" Peter asked them. He was looking at different muggle tools.

"She said we are mentally challenged." James told them with a wide grin. They looked at her with mock outrage.

"First, I was only talking about you." Lily corrected him.

"Oi!" James protested, but the other three boys laughed at him.

"Second, I was only telling him that you go to a special school for your special talents. Or do you want to disagree with that?" Lily ruffled through his hair. "And if nobody protests, and none of you have a vote in this, we are going to the checkout. Who wants to push the cart?"

As Lily predicted a mini-quarrel broke out among them. To her surprise it was between Sirius, Peter and Remus and without James participation. James stepped next to him and watched his friend with her.

"How are your runes coming along?" He asked in a low voice. The row between the other three was cover enough that they wouldn't hear them.

"In all honesty?" Lily asked him and made sure that Remus didn't hear her. "Remus is going to be a great teacher." And Lily was sure of that. Remus was patient and made sure that his student really understood the material before moving on.

"Ah." James looked away from her.

"And that is brilliant when you have one year to teach one year worth of stuff. But if you try to learn a shitload of stuff in a short time, that stuff doesn't work." And that was Lily's honest opinion as well. "In the time you went through one year with me, Remus didn't even get through three month worth of lessons…"

His head whipped around to her. "Really? You prefer my lessons over Remus'"

"Yea… He treats me like a tutorial student. I had some of those. You need do give them a golden star if they can tell one end of the wand from the other." Lily rolled her eyes and James cracked up in some laughter.

"Did you tell him?" James asked quiet.

"No."

"Why not?" James watched her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Because a slow tutor is better than no tutor." She answered. She looked to the three boys. If she had to make a guess, Sirius was winning. "And you made quite clear that you were only a temporary solution until Remus had time."

"Lily, that-" He looked a bit flushed.

"You don't have to explain. You prefer Quidditch over boring runes. Trust me I'm by no way a dictated Quidditch fan, but even I can understand that. Don't worry about it." She gave him a small smile before seeing that true enough Sirius succeed in pushing Remus and Peter aside and claimed the cart for himself. He looked far too proud of himself.

The other two fell in step with her and James.

"Where is Petunia?" Peter asked them. James next to her looked around as if he noticed that the girl he dated at the moment wasn't around anymore. Lily gave him a frowning looked before answering.

"Being out with purebloods, when they don't have to pretend being muggle to them can be a bit overwhelming. I'll get her once I parked you lot at the ice cream parlor or something." Lily told them and herded them to the checkout. "Now start counting money."

"Counting? You can just tap the side of the purse and the right among flies ou-" James stopped himself. "That is magic…"

"Yes." Lily nodded. "And now start counting."

And all four did, while Lily made sure that they actual counted the right coins and none of the endless other coins got in between.

"This is really unpractical!" Sirius complained. He was staring down at the coins in his hand. Some people around them turned, but lost their interest again, when Lily waved them off.

"Yes, that's way muggle have notes." Lily explained, while picking a foreign coin out of Peter's hand. "A piece of paper that says ten, twenty or fifty is very practical."

"Ah, that makes sense…" Remus agreed with her. A hopeful light entered his eyes. "Say Lily do you have some of those notes? You know, just that they, I mean we, could practice on them?" The other three turned to her as well with bright shining eyes.

"No way in hell. Keep counting."

It was finally their turn to pay and the young teller at the checkout quickly turned from flirtingly twisting a lock of hair around her finger to glaring at them for unloading a small mountain of coins at her. She was cursing under her breath but let them go once she counted everything again. The boys divided their purchases between them and Sirius somehow knew the way to the closes ice cream parlor without being in that shopping center ever before. It was an impressive useless talent.

The boys were still excited about their little adventure and couldn't stop talking, while Lily looked in the card to choose something.

"Remus, would you be a dear and order that one for me?" She stood behind him and pointed at her choice over his shoulder. She felt his shoulder become stiff under her touch and stood up straight again. "I want all of you to behave until I'm back. Got that?" She tried to look each of them in the eyes. Sirius grinned at her and Peter gave her a shy smile. Only James avoided her eyes and looked at the ice cream card. "Remus, keep him under control." She squished his shoulder for a moment and was off fetching Petunia.

She found her where she left her, by the drill boy. Lily didn't step up to them, but only waved her sister over. It took her another minute to finally get away and over to Lily, but not before he somehow managed to give Petunia his business card that had a handwritten number on its back.

Once they were a bit away, Lily busted into laughter. "Did he really give you his number?"

"So what?" Petunia huffed. She looked annoyed. "Why is it unbelievable that a boy wants to give me his number? That somebody could be attracted to me over you?"

"What? No!" Where did that come from? Lily stared at her sister in confusion. "I just mean, that you are so out of his league. You are pretty and he is, well, NOT."

"He is a perfectly nice young man." Tuney defended drill boy. She still had her arms crossed.

"Who looks like a baby walrus." Lily completed her sentence with a smirk.

"At least he wouldn't embarrass me in a supermarket." She bit back at Lily.

"Calm down." Lily could already see the ice cream parlor in the distance and grabbed Petunia's wrist to stop her. "They acted like little boys that got a new toy. There is nothing wrong with that. That's how boys act." The idea that Petunia could really hold their fun loving and carefree ways against the boys annoyed Lily.

"A normal life is not a toy for them, for _you_ to play with." She pulled her hand free and stalked over to the table with the boys.

It wasn't like Lily could really talk this out with Tuney in front of them. Lily put a smile on her face and sat down between Remus and Petunia. James sat on Petunia's other side and told her that she could choose whatever she wants.

"It's fine. You don't have to pay for me James." Lily wanted to roll her eyes at Petunia's words. Of course Petunia was pleased that James wanted to pay for her. "It's not right to let you pay for me like this."

"Don't worry. I pay for everybody here." He waved her off, as if it's not a big deal and considering that he still carried around two hundred pounds in coins with him, it probably wasn't. Rich purebloods…

"Wait, does that mean, we are all your date Jamesie?" Sirius asked immediately. "That is so generous of you." He battled his eyelashes at his best friend and petted his arm with an adoring smile. "Did I ever tell you strong your arms look?" James laughed and flexed his arms for him, with big silly gestures.

His other friends hopped in with Sirius. "Yes thank you James, with your glorious windswept hair, that I want to run my hands through." Peter added with a heart filled sigh and James ran a hand through his hair and shook his head like a shampoo model.

"And your beautiful hazel eyes. I could lose myself in those pools of melted chocolate." Remus propped up his chin and stared at James with a goofy smile, who returned the look with lot of eyelash fluttering of his own.

Then James looked at Lily with a raised eyebrow, inviting her as the next in line. Lily laughed and mustered him for a second. "Oh and then those wide manly shoulders that you just want to dig your nails in." She winked at him, before dissolving into giggles. James didn't move immediately like he did to the boys' compliments and kept his eyes on her.

"Ohhhh, that's a good one." Peter clapped his hands in excitement.

"She has an unfair advantage!" Sirius complained. "She has boobs!"

"And beautiful ones. Not that you will ever see them Black." Lily shot back at him with a cheeky grin, then she looked at Petunia and wiggled her eyebrows at her to animate her to play the game as well, but sadly she only rolled her eyes and shook her head.

It wasn't too obvious that Petunia had no interest in the game, when the waiter arrived at the table. He sat down an ice cream bowl in front of Sirius and Peter and took Petunia's order with him. It didn't take long for him to return with the rest of their orders and even Petunia didn't have to wait long.

The rest of the day was nice, even if Lily had the feeling that Petunia was closing herself off. Only after their front door was closed and the two were alone did Petunia tell her what was on her mind.

"Do I- do we know as little about your magical world, as they know about ours? I mean the everyday things, not the big spell stuff." Petunia asked in a quiet voice and Lily didn't know what to answer. The silence stretched for a long moment and it was Petunia who broke it again. "I see." Then she went upstairs to her room and Lily wished she could tell her something else.

She thought about it while she brushed her teeth and got ready for bed, without finding an answer. She pushed the thoughts aside for the night. There was nothing she could do about it for now. Lily went into her own room and pulled out her news chalkboard. It was her subscription to the French newspaper _Journal Hibou_. It was not the most practical way of getting your news, because you always get chalk dust on your clothes and the pictures wouldn't move on it, but it was a lot cheaper than getting an actual owl each day from France.

Lily brushed trough her hair and looked at the board. The brush fell from her hand and everything was spinning around her. The board bounced on her bed and she couldn't breathe.

This couldn't be true.

Lily ran.

* * *

A.N. Thank you for your reviews, it is lovely to hear from readers.

I'm still looking for a beta reader if somebody has interest, please write me. And yes it is a bit strange that Remus and Lily date, but right now that is more a tool for Lily to connect with Petunia. Remus is not very comfortable in the relationship either, so yes it is only a matter of time for them to break up.

To the chapter:

I want to write about Lily and Petunia's relationship in this AU, where Petunia didn't stun her sister out of jealousy, but it is still difficult. Lily is set in her ways of keeping things hidden from her family and is now uncomfortable with sharing even as much as she does. Petunia on the other hand feels disconnected with Lily and just doesn't understand a lot of things. Apart of that they are very different in their outlook of life and Petunia gets embarrassed by the way the others act and angry at Lily for not understanding this anger.

I hope you like the story and this chapter. Please tell me what you think about it.

Have a nice day.


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

After looking at the image of a man opening a can of fruit for the second time, James carefully tried to mimic the example. The whole 'can opener' business was a lot more complicated than the Marauders anticipated. But muggles apparently do this every day, it can't be that difficult right? They all sat on the floor in James' room trying to figure out their new muggle gadgets.

"Could you hurry up or something, Prongs?" Sirius his git of a best friend complained next to him. "It's not that difficult."

"Says the guys that knifed his tomato soup and is now drinking it out of a hole," James said shooting him a glare.

"Peter and Remus managed just fine," Sirius pointed to their two friends who were eating tuna and ravioli.

"Peter's tuna doesn't count! It had this pull open thing on it! And that doesn't even look like fish." James gave a suspicious look to the so-called tuna that Peter was eagerly stuffing into his face.

"Tastes like it." Peter answered while shrugging his shoulders.

Annoyed at the lack of support James once again faced his can and vowed to open those stupid cocktail fruits, whatever those were.

Apparently bored with James' renewed efforts r Sirius focused his precious attention on to Remus. "So Moony, now that you have a girlfriend, let me inform you about the best snogging places in our old damp castle." He then flung an arm around Remus' shoulder and gave his friend a cheeky grin. Remus looked very uncomfortable but whether it was the display of affection or the conversation topic James couldn't tell.

"The Astronomy Tower is great, if your bird likes to be romanticized. But it can get really chilly up there and you have to make sure there are no classes or projects."

James gripped the can opener tighter.

"Sirius I'm prefect. I think I know where the snogging hotspots are," Remus mumbled and pushed Sirius' arm off.

"If you pesky little prefects know about the spots, they are not very good, are they?" Sirius smirked at their friend. "Don't you agree Prongsie?"

"Whatever…" James stared at the can willing it to open up with his mind. Sirius rolled his eyes at the unenthused response .

"I don't even know if I need to know about those fantastic spots…" Remus fiddled with the hem his pajama. His voice was quiet and his tone attracted James' interest immediately.

"What do you mean? You won't need them?" Sirius stared at Remus in confusion. "I don't care how much she is into PDA, and you guys hide that well, you will not make out next to us all the time!" Sirius looked a mix out of scandalized and disgusted. Not that he was one to complain about public display of affection. Nevertheless James wholeheartedly agreed with the point overall.

Remus rolled his eyes. "When we first got together, the rules were pretty clear. Until the end of summer… But since we know that we both will go to Hogwarts things had been strange. We haven't talked about anything yet."

"So talk to her." Sirius said flippantly. "It's not so difficult, mate."

Remus shifted in his place. "I'm not sure if I want to…" He finally said. He continued before Sirius could voice his protest. "It's not as if I love her or anything. She is nice and funny and yes she looks great, but I don't feel anything for her."

"Is she that bad of a kisser?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows.

"No, but I don't feel butterflies or happiness beyond compare when I kiss her," Remus admitted with an embarrassed half-smile.

"You know, the bit about knowing spots in case you need to romanticize a girl? Forget that. I need to tell your girl those spots, because you clearly want to be swept off of your feet." Sirius said swooning like a Victorian maiden.

More concerned with Remus' relationship than his battle with the can of fruit, James gave up on his project and turned to Remus. "So you want to break up with her?" He asked and couldn't explain why this idea pleased him so much.

Remus shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure how… I like her, as a friend. It is great to talk to her about all the things none of you are interested in, like I don't know most of the library! I don't want to lose that."

"Staying friends with an ex never works!" Sirius interjected with absolute confidence. A dark look crossed James face at Sirius' comment. "Oh come on James. Tell me one ex you stayed friends with." James refused to acknowledge the question mostly because Sirius was right. "See, even James can't stay friends and he goes out with the most boring girls – wait what was that?" Some strange noises were coming from downstairs.

James got up to investigate and the other three followed his lead. He could hear voices as soon as he stepped into the stairwell. He immediately recognized Minx shrill voice but the other was to quiet to identify it.

"The miss has no right to be here!" Minx sounded angrier than James ever heard her. Then she whimpered. "But oh, oh, oh. Minx can't raise hands against Young Master Potter's friends. Oh, oh, oh." More noise was heard. Something fell down. "No, no, no! Terrible Miss! Shouldn't touch anything! Maybe Minx should get the Mistress! She would tell Minx to make the terrible Miss leave! But Mistress already lay down for the night… Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

James stopped the doorway to the living room and saw a frantic Lily Evans carelessly searching through the items on their mantelpiece. Her hair was wild and unkempt as if she had run her hand through it a thousand times. She wore pajama shorts and a purple tank top. She was barefoot and James was embarrassed to admit that he immediately noticed with his randy teenage boy eyes that she wasn't wearing a bra. To see the normally put together girl so out of control was strange and unsettling. Lily didn't seem to notice the boys behind her as she continued her search Their house elf meanwhile disappeared, probably to wake up his mother.

The other three pushed behind him and appeared to be just as confused as James felt. Sirius poked Remus in the ribs with a questioning look in his eyes almost as if he thought kissing Lily gave Remus a special insight into her mind.

Lily's hand grasped around a small pouch filled with the family's floo powder and shouted in relief. "Ah ha!"

She fisted a handful of the powder and threw it into the flames, which immediately turned green. Lily then entered the fireplace and shouted something in French with a a fanatic glimmer in her eyes. However, her face quickly adopted a look of desperation when she realized the flames had dwindled . James knew that was a sign that whatever destination she asked for was unavailable from their fireplace. Strange, James knew for sure that their fireplace was connected to the international floo network that stretched over Europe, Asia and Africa. The biggest network in the world. So if she didn't want to travel to the Americas, she should have no difficulty connecting

The redhead tried again. The same words. Again the green flame died. A third time. Still the same. She then threw powder in again, this time shouting something else in French. Nothing.

She changed her words again and again and again.

James wasn't sure about how he should react. Should he stop her? How could he help her? What was going on? What had alarmed her so much that she needed to leave late at night ? In her pajamas?

He took a hesitant step into the room.

Lily sounded more and more distraught with each locations she failed to connect to. Where did she so desperately need to go?

"What is going on here?" His mum's voice boomed behind James and his friends and she pushed her way into the room . She held a silken dressing gown tightly around her body and angrily stalked over to Lily.

The young witch ignored her and continued just grabbing more of the floo powder and throwing it into the fireplace. Two handfuls, three, four handfuls. Her voice was breaking.

"Any freaking bloody place in France!" The flames died again. Her body twitched and she looked as if she was caught between sobbing, screaming and throwing up. Soft, strained noises escaped her from her quivering lips. His mum firmly grabbed her shoulder and jerked her away from the fireplace. Lily's body moved like a rag doll, but her eyes stayed fixed on the flames. Despite her fierce dislike for Lily, even his mum looked concerned.

Everything was quiet for a moment.

To see the confident girl look so defeated broke James' heart. He felt an overwhelming urge to go to her and promise her that everything was going to be alright. That he would make everything alright again. But he couldn't. He was rooted to the spot.

Suddenly the fireplace lit up in green flames and for a short moment it a burst of life flashed in Lily's face, only to be whipped away again when his father stepped out of the fireplace.

His dad looked tried, exhausted, and beaten. His auror ropes hung open and ragged on his shoulders. James realized that his father returned home much later than usual. Before inventing Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, James' dad was a highly lauded auror. Three and a half years ago his father decided that he would return from retirement and be an auror once again. At first he claimed it was because with James at Hogwarts the house was too quiet for him and he needed a bit of work would keep him "young". Back then James even believed him, but with time he realized that the rise of the Death Eaters likely contributed to his father's decision. As the number of missing people grew, the Ministry began desperately calling back retired aurors to fight against this new ugly evil.

When his dad saw Lily a pitiful look settled on his face as he took in her upset state. The faint hope James had that maybe, hopefully Lily was just overreacting to some teenage drama crashed and died, something devastating must have happened to warrant the pain in Lily's eyes. His mother attempted to ask his father something, but she was ignored as his dad made a few quick strides over to the redhead and pulled her into a tight hug. He mumbled some soothing words against her hair and stroked her back, as if comforting a small scared child. Lily didn't return the hug. Her arms hung down stiff, pressed against her body.

"Who?" Her voice was a whisper. His dad glanced down at her apprehensively and she asked a bit louder, "Who was k-" she paused to take a deep breath; "Who didn't make it?"

His father stayed quiet for a moment longer, before starting to mumble a handful of names. Lily reacted to each of the names. Some with a suffocated scream or a soft whine. Several names actually caused her to release a heartbreaking sob that shook her whole body. Throughout the conversation his father could provide her with no words of comfort, so he showcased his sympathy by holding her gently the whole time. When he went quiet nobody dared to say something or even move. James' eyes never left the girl. A young girl his age that apparently lost people today.

It took some time before she calmed down somewhat. She pushed herself out of his dad's arms and took a couple of steps back.

"I need to- I'm going to- I'm out." Without sparing anyone a second glance, she turned and fled out through the garden door.

James was torn between running after Lily and making sure she was alright and staying behind to ask his father what happened to cause her that much pain, but he found himself to be still frozen in shock.

Behind him he heard Peter mumble to Remus.

"You should go after her, Moony. I think she could use her boyfriend right now…"

"Ah… yes. I.. Of course." Remus looked unsure and a bit uncoordinated as he followed her out. James watched him through the huge windows. Unfortunately, it was dark and James could only make out vague movements in the garden.

James' eyes flickered from the window to his parents. His father stood closer to his mother and was telling her something in a low voice. His mum raised a hand to her mouth in horror andher anger melted away. James Sirius and Peter moved to stand next to them.

"Dad, what happened?" James asked even though he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

His father's shoulders dropped and he rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "There was an attack, Death Eater attack, in France. It was the worst one we've seen." James' eyes flickered back to the garden window. His father continued, "Beauxbatons has this rule that all Muggleborn students return a week early starting today. Over a dozen British Death Eaters attacked. There were a few others from all over Europe, but it was led by the British once." His father sighed and looked older than ever. "Three students died, twelve muggle family members and nearly thirty were wounded. It could have all been much worse if the French didn't have five aurors stationed at the drop off point already, but they didn't expect an attack that big. It was a terrible scene."

"You were there Mr. P?" Sirius asked in a much softer voice than James was used to.

"Yes, of course, we were sent over to get evidence in hopes that we could catch those bastards. France and the rest of Europe is in uproar. We are not very popular to begin with but after this attack in which children... _children_ were slaughtered." He let out another sigh. "The entire magical community is outraged and I don't blame them. A twelve year old boy was murdered tonight. Now catching these guys is the ministry's top priority." His father fell down on the couch and ran his hands through his hair.

"But you are going to catch them right?" Peter asked.

"We better or soon the British will be trapped on our little islands." His father said with a joyless laugh.

"What?" James asked.

"After the attack they decided to cut off the floo network and put up an apparition shield. And as far as I know they created a powerful storm right in the middle between us and them so that crossing the ocean by broomstick or boat is pretty much y impossible as well." His father told them. "Only a few secure ministry lines are operational, but I don't think they can keep the storm up for long. Muggles are bound to notice that something is amiss soon. But I think they called in the European broom makers to create a no-fly zone in front of the coast." His father vaguely gestured to the other armchairs and couches for them all to sit down.

"But wouldn't people not just go around it and get in from another country?" Peter asked.

" _ **All**_ of Europe is in an uproar. Right now every country cut access to and from our country right off."

"Maybe it's a good thing." His mum added in a thoughtful voice. "Maybe such inconveniences could shake some people up and more people would willing to take action."

James nodded along to the idea and he could see Sirius do the same. His father on the other hand shook his head. "The problem is that this will hit our muggleborns the hardest. Most purebloods have some kind of family in the rest of Europe and could possibly get a visa to escape the country. Muggleborns would have a much harder time to get a floo visa or to get out of the country at all..." He rubbed his face again. "In the worst case scenario this could, this would be terrible for them."

"Worst case scenario?" James asked.

"We lose. The ministry falls. They would be stuck here without any way to flee to safety."

James felt his breath falter. They could lose this war? This idea never really occurred to James as a real possibility. These were just some wankers, but in the end the Good and Noble would win. Right? Was it really possible their side could lose? That those monsters, that kill little children, could win and slaughter dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands more people, innocent people, like Lily. James' eyes wandered back to the window, trying to see the silhouettes, but the darkness hide them well

"But we will win right? We won't let that happen, right dad?" He felt like a little child again that wanted to hear that Santa was real.

"We will try our damn best to win" His dad ruffled James' hair. "Maybe we should all go to bed."

"We'll wait for Remus, if that's alright with you." Sirius told his parents.

"She can stay here if she wants. Can you tell her that, if she comes back in?" His mother added before leaving the room with his dad. James was a bit surprised to hear that invitation from her.

The three boys sat there together. None of them had anything to say as everyone was lost in thought. After a long time it was Sirius that broke the silence.

"This is all fucked up!" He sounded frustrated, angry, and powerless.

"Yea…" Peter agreed without looking up.

"There must be something we could do." James felt like he had to spring into action, to do something to make it all better.

"We are students. There is nothing we can do! In one week we will sit n the Hogwarts express and have to worry about N.E.W.T.s, Quidditch, pranks and detention. If the aurors can't solve it, how could we?" Peter shot back.

"Is that what you want to tell Lily when she comes back in?" James jumped up no longer able to sit still. "Sorry your friends were attacked and killed, but we have important stuff like breaking our detention record to worry about?!" He was stalking back and forth. "I refuse to accept that there is nothing we could do!"

"But there isn't!" Peter answer with just as much passion. "We can worry ourselves to death but we would change nothing. We will have to probably pick up this shit after we've graduated. Why can't we actually enjoy our last years?" After that Peter's voice got quieter. "Why do we have to play heroes now? Why can't we just be us, the Marauders, for as long as we can?"

James looked at his friends. Peter stared down on the ground, but there was something stubborn about him, he wouldn't just agree with James on this one. Even Sirius looked conflicted.

"Prongs, man, you know I want to stick it to those wankers hard. Half of them are probably related to me somehow, but Pete is right. There is not much we can do right now. We can try to become the best wizards possible and then save the world, but right now we are stuck in school." Sirius looked him in the eyes for a long moment until some of James' restless hunger for action left. After that his eyes brightened with mischief. "We can still throw our lives away in a hopeless fight after we made sure Moony and Wormy here get laid."

This forced a chuckle out of James, "Sounds reasonable."

After that the atmosphere wasn't exactly relaxed, but at least it wasn't completely angst ridden and depressed. However that changed when Remus walked back into the living room. James immediately jumped to his feet and hurried over. He tried to look past his friend, but couldn't see Lily anywhere. Remus answered his question before he even asked.

"I dropped her off at her house." He sounded tired.

"Oh… I mean ok, good. She could have stayed here. Mum said that." Some tension left James, but he felt a strange sense of disappointment and asked, "So is she ok?"

"Not really," Remus sank down in an armchair. "She was angry and frightened and sad and she even felt guilty."

"Guilty? About what?" Sirius stared at Remus as if he had grown a second head.

"She is in the dueling club… Part of her thinks that if she had been there maybe, maybe she could have saved some of the people." At this point Remus looked nearly as exhausted as he did after his full moon transformations. "I told her that's rubbish, but feelings are a strange thing."

"This sucks." Sirius said.

"Yeah…" Everybody mumbled their agreement in dissonance.

"Lily thinks that going to Hogwarts is the same as matching into war…" Remus told them and it didn't seem like he knew what to think about that. "She asked me if we could all stay at her side for this. Kind of like brothers in arms behind the enemy line. Is this what Britain is? A warzone? Do muggleborns that go to Hogwarts with us feel the same way?"

"I don't think so… but it's not like they would tell a Black right?" Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "But of course we will have your girlfriend's back, man." Sirius grinned at their shy werewolf friend.

Remus shifted uncomfortable in his seat and avoided everybody's eyes.

"Remus?" Peter asked. "What is going on?"

"We broke up." Remus mumbled under his breath.

James exploded. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He was up on his feet and loomed over Remus to shout at him. "What about her friends and classmates being attacked and killed made you think, 'Now is a great time to break up with her!'" The idea that his friend had caused Lily even more distress made James so very _very_ angry, furious, livid, raging!

"Calm down, man." Sirius got up and pushed James a bit back, but even he didn't look very impressed with Remus. Peter looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but here.

Remus at least had the grace to shrink down under his glare. But after a moment Remus looked up again with a hint of defiance in his eyes. "She broke up with me…" He told them and James felt just as confused as Sirius looked. "She said, she preferred a friend to be by her side out of honest concern over a boyfriend that feels obligated to." Remus looked down for a moment, "I probably did something wrong, but I think she was honest when she said she wants to be friends with all of us."

That knocked the wind out of James' anger. "So you agreed to be friends with her for all of us after you two broke up?" James just had to ask again. He had to get this right. For some reason this was important.

"Yes," Remus confirmed. "We are already friends with her and hang out nearly every day. It would just be the same, just at Hogwarts."

For a moment James was surprised to hear a defensive tone in Remus' voice . Of course they would stay friends with Lily!She was fun to have around. Clever with a witty mouth and if nothing else really nice to look at. But then he noticed Sirius' face, that appeared to have recently bit into a lemon. James quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What? I think we four have a great thing. I'm not sure if bringing in somebody else will do us any good." Sirius crossed his arms. "What if she starts to ask questions? You know about…" Sirius nodded to Remus. "We couldn't talk openly about a lot of stuff. I mean we can be kind of friends, like with the other Gryff-girls, but I don't think an actual friendship would do us any good."

James stared at Sirius in disbelief. "Do us no good?" He questioned incredulously. "We were friends with her for the last couple of weeks and now when she needs us she does us no good? You didn't have a problem with having her back five minutes ago."

"That was before I knew she broke up with one of my best friends. Staying friends with the ex always causes problems." Sirius retorted. "And so what if I prefer the friends I have for the last five years over a bird that I have only known for a few weeks. Just because you want some action doesn't mean I want to risk hurting my friends!"

"Wh-What? I don't-" James threw a worried look at Remus. He didn't want his friend to think that he had ambitions for the girl he broke up with half an hour ago. "That's not true!" James tried to convince himself as well as Sirius and Remus of those words. He knew his type of girls. They were not like Lily.

"Oh, please, you couldn't get a snog all summer because Petty wasn't interested and now playing her little sister's protector is your attempt to change that," Sirius barked out. "I know you Prongs and I know that slightly far off look you get from time to time when you think about a girl. Do you really think that helping Lily will get you somewhere with her sister?"

"I wasn't thinking about Petty here." James felt like someone slapped him in the face. He could honestly say that Petunia hadn't crossed his mind at all. "This is about Lily and us being friends." Sirius didn't look convinced and shook his head.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night… But I know you, this is about a bird." Sirius told him and made to go upstairs.

"I don't call off the dips." Remus said to stop Sirius, who turned around to face him. Everybody looked at Remus in confusion. He repeated himself. "I don't call off the dips on Lily. Rule number three: The other Marauders have to be friendly to the dibs girl." James heart missed a beat and he was glad that Remus had been looking at Sirius at the time because he wasn't sure what his face looked like. "You claim you want to protect me, Sirius, but I want to be friends with her, because quite frankly I'll enjoy having someone to talk about all the "boring stuff" with and if some idiotic, chauvinistic rule is what's going to make sure you act like a decent human being to a friend of mine I will keep that stupid dips up."

"Remus...Moony, what if she notices something about your furry little problem." Sirius didn't look angry anymore only concerned.

"Let that be my problem, please. I managed just fine with most people…" Sirius looked at Remus for a long time before he turned around again and left. Remus waited a moment before he mumbled good night and disappeared as well.

It was only Peter and James left. James leaned back. "Sometimes I don't understand Sirius," James mumbled.

"He is afraid of change. Right now everything is better than ever before for him. I don't think he could imagine that his life could improve anyhow, so he is against the change," Peter answered him. James didn't really expect an answer and looked at his quietest friend for a moment. Peter shifted in his seat and looked unsure of himself, as if his insight could be met with scorn.

Peter was never confident in himself and James was at a loss at how to fix that because he had never had that problem before. James gave him an encouraging smile, hoping he would continue. After another look at James, Peter did. "It's not that he doesn't like her, he does. She is sarcastic and feisty. They could get on like a house on fire." James nodded; yes this was what he thought as well, that was why Sirius' behavior confused him so much. "But right now he sees something different in her. He sees change and he doesn't like it… Not only a change like adding a new friend to the group, but all that's happening in the wizarding world, a war is brewing and changes are coming. Lily can't avoid that and we would be forced to face it with her… It frightens me as well."

"But it's not her fault…" James said. The idea to blame Lily of all people for what was going wrong seemed so mind-bogglingly stupid.

"No, but it's easier… "

"I mean he was ok with everything when he thought she was still Moony's girlfriend and then he blew up."

"He knows how to deal with girlfriends or a mate's girlfriend, but he never had a female friend… thats going to be a huge adjustment for him." Peter looked down on his hands. Whenever he shared his observations with the other marauders, he never looked them in the eyes.

"Sometimes I'm still shocked how you know all this stuff about everyone," James sighed deeply. "I'm scared to ask what you know about my inner workings."

Peter stayed quiet for some time before he answered. "Sirius is kind of right… Some part of you does all this to get the girl…"

"This isn't about Petunia." James repeated his earlier statement.

"I never said it was… I'm going to bed as well. See you tomorrow." With that Peter walked out of the room but added one last thing. "Let us all sleep on this tonight. It's all a lot to take in at once."

'Why was the world getting so complicated?' James asked himself before going to bed as well.

* * *

A.N. I have a new beat reader! Thank you for your brilliant work hurricanehairandemeraldeyes. You did a fantastic job with this chapter.

I hope you like this chapter and that the set-up for it wasn't to obvious when I introduced the muggleweek. What do you think about the chapter, please leave me a review.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Lily sat in London diner with her family around a small table. They had a delicious looking English breakfast in front of them though neither Petunia nor Lily enjoyed it very much. The sisters shared a look, they both preferred French croissant and latte café over beans and sausages, but their parents seemed to like the meal.

"Oh! I can't believe it is already time for you to leave Tiger-Lily." Her mum placed a hand over Lily's, while she spoke.

"I was even around a week longer than usual." Lily took a sip of bitter tea. Anything was better than the food in front of her.

"Yes, but still. You always go away and the next time we see you, you're a head taller ." Her mum always got emotional at these farewell breakfasts before she left for school.

"Mum, I'm pretty sure I stopped growing at least two years ago." Lily rolled her eyes. The conversation was always the same. First, her mum would say how much they would miss her.

"You are away for so long and we missed so much of your growing up." Her mum teared up a little bit.

"I miss you too.," Lily answered automatically. Second, a reminder to be well behaved.

"Oh, my little girl is nearly grown up." her mum gently rubbed Lily's hand. "Don't get in any trouble while you are there. We don't want another letter like in second year when you got in a fight with someone." Her mum's voice put on a strict tone.

"Of course not Mum." For a moment guilt fluttered in her chest. Could she really promise that? In Hogwarts? Lily still wasn't sure what to expect from her new school, specifically of the people that go there. She knew the Marauders (and she internally rolled her eyes at the childish name), but she had asked some Beauxbatons friends to get her information about who she would meet there. She got a short list with names, who to stay away from and a promise for more. Basically, she should stay away from Slytherin to be on the safe side…

Third, was actually her favorite part of the whole farewell ceremony. Her dad would tell her what new tricks he planned to master while she was away from home.

"I'm sure Lily will be on her best behavior. She always is." He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly. "By the way I found some amazing new card and coin tricks. You see, there are coins under four cards and then you make them jump between the cards." Childlike excitement danced in her father's eyes. He really loved those "magic" tricks and little shows. Lily knew that he started with it as a way to reconnect with her and fell seriously in love with it. Lily looked at her dad and smiled, as she loved him even more for it.

"You know, once I'm seventeen I can show you some of my magic tricks." His eyes lit up. In all her years in Beauxbatons she never before offered him to show him some real magic. "New country, New laws." Lily shrugged her shoulders. He smiled at her with shimmering eyes and squeezed her shoulder again.

"That would be brilliant, Tiger-Lily." Her dad told her in a soft voice.

Next point on the agenda would be her mum reminding Lily to do well in her studies.

"And to show us something you will have to learn it first. All these new classes will probably be confusing for you." Lily knitted her eyebrows at those words. Did her parents misunderstand something when Lily and the Potters explained the Magical World to them? Why did they think that she was taking those subjects for the first time? Lily wasn't sure if she wanted to ask that question, especially with her leaving in around an hour. Not that her mother noticed Lily's inner conflict. She continued to talk away. "I asked the boys to help you out some."

"That won't be necessary." Lily managed to interrupt her mother for a moment.

"Oh, don't be too proud to ask for help. Everybody needs it from time to time. As long as you do your best and we will be proud of you."

"Of course Mum." Lily then decided against explaining everything to her parents again. Maybe during Christmas holidays. For now her mum would end this little talk, by reminding her to write home.

"And maybe you can clear everything up with Remus too. He is a lovely boy. I don't see why you broke up."

"Yes, mum I will wr-" Lily stopped when she realized what her mum had said. "Wait what?" Boys were never a topic in these last day reminders.

"Really Lily, you are sixteen already. Don't you think it is time to look for a nice boy to settle down with." The sentence structure made it sound like it was a question, but the pronunciation and the look on her mother's face showed that it was not. "We don't want you to end up alone and dating a boy for only a few weeks and then breaking up with him is going to give you a bad reputation." Though her mother's words were condescending, she actually sounded really concerned about her love life. Sure, Lily always knew that her parents were slightly conservative, but she never really paid attention to how her parents felt about her dating. Lily was unsure how to react to that and glanced at Petunia for help, but her sister didn't look surprised at all. Was that something her sister regularly heard while Lily was at school? Was that the reason why nothing really happened between her and James?

"Don't worry about it, Mum, Dad…" Lily finally said. When her mum opened her mouth to add something, Lily quickly interrupted her. She made a show of looking at the clock. "Oh no, look at the time. I really have to get to the train station. I'm not sure where I have to go and want some time to find my way."

"Oh yes, of course." Her parents were startled as they noticed the time. "We don't want you to miss your train in the end. Now that would be embarrassing." Her mum said while her dad paid for their breakfast.

They all walked over to King's Cross, their parents slightly ahead of Lily and Petunia. They clearly wanted to give their daughters a moment to talk. It was uncomfortable again. It always was when the two of them said goodbye after the holidays, no matter how well or badly they got along in the last weeks of the summer. Maybe Petunia noticed the shift that Lily always felt, when she left the muggle world and entered the magical one.

"So…" Lily started, while slightly struggling with Artemis' cage.

"So… you will be off again…" Petunia answered.

"Yeah…" Lily said, but wasn't sure how to continue. Petunia looked slightly unsure as well.

"So, you are now in the same class as the boys, right? James said something like that…" Petunia finally said.

"Yes!" Lily shouted, relieved that they found some kind of topic. "Hogwarts has four 'houses' and we are in the same one." After a short moment she added. "Gryffindor."

"That is nice."

"Are you and James?" Lily left her question unfinished, she felt strangely uncomfortable with naming anything that was going on between Petunia and James. She was unsure why. "I mean I could keep an eye on him and write you about what he is up to."

"Mia already said I could borrow their owl to write him." Tuney bit her lip and Lily could feel her face fall. "But it would still be nice, if you wrote me too." There was a small but genuine smile on Petunia's lips as she looked at her younger sister.

'We are doing the exact same thing' Lily thought. 'We talk about other people because we don't know how to have a real conversation with each other.'

"I will." Lily smiled back.

Their parents stopped and waited for the two sisters to catch up. They stood near the stairs up to the platforms nine and ten and unbeknownst to them, all those between.

"What platform did you say your train would be, Lily-dear?" Her mother asked while glancing around the bustling station.

"It's fine, mum. I can take it from here." Lily avoided the question and tried to take her trunk back from her father. He gave her a disapproving look and Lily reminded herself to be more open with her family. She was able to include them more in everything magical now. (Apart of the war. Never the war. This war wasn't allowed to touch them in any way.)

"Platform 9 ¾, mum. It's hidden from muggles. You can't get to it." They looked at her with slightly raised eyebrows at her answer, but also with disappointment. Lily shrugged. "I'm sorry." Petunia stared at her with thin pressed lips, and said nothing.

Lily first hugged her mum and dad. "I love you and I will miss you." Lily felt a twinge of guilt at her words,, because she knew that only the 'I love you' part was true.

With Petunia it was even more awkward. The sisters both took a step closer, stopped, looked at each other and finally embraced each other with stiff arms. After one or two rubs on the back they let go again.

"I'll see you all at Christmas." Lily took her backpack from Petunia, but when she reached for her trunk her father lifted it up.

"Let me carry it up the stairs at least." Her father told her.

"You don't have to Dad." Lily said, though . 'I don't want you to.' was what she thought. Up those stairs were lots of magical families, all of whom could be dangerous to her family. But her father had none of it and carried the heavy trunk up towards the platforms. Lily hurried after him and said once again goodbye.

"My little Tiger-Lily." He pulled her into another hug. Lily took in a deep breath, her dad smelled of cigarettes and his good aftershave. "We don't know much about your world, but we love you no matter what, even if we can't understand you."

"I know dada…" Lily whispered back, with tears in her eyes. "I have to go now."

She placed her stuff on the trolley and waved her father off. It was not difficult to locate the entrance to the platform. If you paid a little attention you could see people disappearing through the pillar. Lily straightened her back. On the other side of that wall, there would be dozens of people who thought she was unworthy of magic. It was finally time to face the dragon.

Lily took one last breath before pushing the trolley through the pillar. She refused to close her eyes. This was something she had to face head on. After stepping through what felt like a veil, the magical platform showed itself. A red steam locomotive appeared before her with the words Hogwarts Express was written with golden letters on the side. The platform was packed with people. Lily could hear shrieking owls and children shouting for their parents.

She didn't see the boys on the platform, but considering that the train was leaving in ten minutes it was quite possible that they were already on board. Lily spelled her luggage with her wand and it followed her around and onto the train. She looked into each of the compartments in hopes of seeing four familiar faces. In her quest to find her new friends, she was actual surprised when she met an old one.

A tall and skinny boy stepped out of a compartment in front of her. Lily's first thought was that she had seen this boy before. Lily stared at him for a moment and he returned her look with equal confusion. Her mouth fell open slightly when she finally recognised his ash pale face and the small piercing black eyes.

"Sev?" Lily wasn't completely sure, but grew more confident the longer she looked at him. "Severus Snape is that really you?"

His eyes widened comically. "Lily?" He whispered her name. "Wha- What are you doing here?"

"My parents decided to move again and no moaning or complaining could convince them to leave me in France and so here I am." An involuntary grin spread across Lily's face. grinned. Seeing her old childhood friend again, made her remember the old days when they played together in the park, back when she believed all magic was beautiful and fascinating.

"That- that's great! It's been far too long since we last saw each other. You've changed so much." He looked her up and down and a slight blush appeared in his pale face. "You didn't grow much, but you changed."

"You as well." Lily answered and motioned to him in return.

Some people bloomed in their puberty. They grew into the features that seemed off on a child and turned into handsome and pretty people. Severus Snape wasn't one of them. On a scale from 1 to 10, he was a 4, at best and with a childhood friendship bonus.

His skin was sickly pale with dark shadows under his eyes, it was clear that he didn't see much sunlight. His nose was crooked and attention grabbing, but not in a good way. Not that there was much to look at. His face was slightly too long and his limp and unstyled black hair didn't help with that. None of these features were very handsome, but what really made him appear unattractive was the way he held himself. The way his shoulders sloped down made him look a sad raven or a wet sack and there was something about his face that seemed as if it naturally fell into a sneer or frown. Though he was smiling right now, it looked forced on his face. A dark, gloomy aura of misery hung around him.

Lily asked herself if she was a bitch for noticing these kinds of things first when seeing an old childhood friend again. A tiny part of her felt like she was being harsh, but the bigger part of her told the tiny part to shut the hell up. She had the right to find a friend unattractive!

"There is so much we have to catch up on." Severus said, falling in step with her. "Once you are in Slytherin, I can show you everything."

Lily's brow furrowed at his comment and she abruptly stopped to stare at his smiling face. "First, I'm muggleborn. The last place I want to go is Slytherin." Who in their right mind would want their muggleborn friends to be in Slytherin? Nobody could be this blind to what was going on. Severus flushed red and avoided her eyes.

"We don't have to tell them that, you know." He mumbled.

Lily stared at him a moment longer. "I'm already sorted into Gryffindor. Apparently coming to Britain in the middle of this shit show, is brave albeit borderline suicidal enough to become a golden lion." Lily said with more humor than she felt. She watched him carefully; saw how his smile fell and a mask of displeasure and even disgust twisted his face for a moment.

"Then it can't be helped." Severus answered. "But you should watch out. You are in the same house as _those idiots_." Severus had written to her about _those idiots_ that he butted heads with since they were eleven. He never mentioned any real names, just various insults.

Honestly she hadn't spent any time thinking bout Severus and his school rivalry since she came to Britain. All those things seemed meaningless next to her worries about being trapped on a stupid island with Death Eaters out to kill her and her family.

"You have to stay away from them." Severus urged her. "They are the only boys in your year in Gryffindor, so it might be difficult- but it's certainly not impossible. Actually, thinking about it now the girls in your house are all stuck up bitches as well."

Anger immediately flared up inside may not have known these girls and maybe they were the most terrible girls in the school, but that didn't give Severus the right to turn Lily against her roommates. "Really? Sounds like we would get on swimmingly, considering how often people call me that." She raised a challenging eyebrow at him before continuing, "And when it comes to those boys-"

Lily, of course, realized that she could place names to those "idiots," as they were clearly the neighborhood boys that she spent some nice weeks with. Severus was once her closest friend, until Bellevie took over that title. It would only be right to stand by Severus' side. She was friends with him for years, and she only knew the Marauders for maybe a month. Except…

Lily could hear Dumbledore's voice in her head.

" _They are mischief makers and pranksters, but you can trust them and the elder Potters as well. They know what side to fight for." His blue eyes twinkled at his words._

 _Lily felt relieved beyond compare. The neighbors were no direct threat to her family. Then another name crossed her mind. "Severus Snape. What can you tell me about him?"_

 _Dumbledore raised his eyebrows before adopting a guarded expression. "Why are you interested in him?" He leaned back and stroked his long beard, a calculating look in his eyes._

" _We grew up on the same street and considering the things we did as children, I suspect that he must be a wizard as well." Lily wanted to hear what the headmaster honestly thought about her old friend so she downplayed their friendship._

" _Mr. Snape is an intelligent young man, but I fear he will need someone to guide him in the right direction to become the man he could be. Maybe you could revive your old friendship."_

Dumbledore wasn't ready to tell her that she could trust Severus the same way she could trust those four boys. He needed someone to guide him and Lily didn't feel up to that, when she herself was feeling lost in this new school, country, _war_. Lily wanted to tell herself that she was being paranoid and that the old man didn't mean what he said in a sinister way, but Lily could not imagine that, he meant guiding Sev in the right direction was meant in an academic way.

"I will not make any more enemies than I already have in this school and country. So no, I will not take part in whatever little disputes you lot have with each other." Lily's eyes dropped to Severus' Slytherin emblem on his robes. He had stopped in front of a compartment filled with other people in matching robes and faced her with a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes.

"Have a nice day Severus. We'll see each other in class."

Lily walked swiftly passed him and gave him a short wave before he could react. She briefly thought that he would catch up to her and demand another answer from her, but a moment later she heard the compartment door open and close with a slam.

Her stomach twisted into knots. Did she just jeopardize her long friendship with Severus her pen pal for years over her paranoia? However, she did promise her girls back in France that she would be careful and stay away from certain people- Slytherins... But she had known Sev for years, so he should be trustworthy right? But then why didn't Dumbledore tell her she could trust him.

Lily paused as an urge to turn around and hug him appeared. To tell him that he is her friend and that she would stay by his side against anyone.

No! That was the reaction of a little girl with childhood worries, not an adolescent, who was facing a war and genocide against her ethnic group. Were muggleborns an ethnic group? Lily wasn't sure. Whatever. In any case, she didn't have the luxury to revive her childhood days on a swing. Lily clenched her jaw and kept marching down the train. Near the last few compartments, she spotted Peter and Remus, sitting across from each other. Remus was reading a book, while Peter was fanatically writing on a scroll. A transfiguration book and what looked like a finished scroll propped up next to him.

"Hello. Can I sit here?" Lily asked even though she had already put Artemis' cage on the seat next to Remus. James had invited her to sit with them yesterday, but she wasn't sure if he had informed his friends about doing so.

Remus looked up from his book and smiled at her. "Of course. Take a seat. Do you need help with the luggage?" He stood up to help. Peter just gave her a confirming grunt and continued his frantic scribbling.

Lily smirked at him and shook her head. "No I don't need help, because…" she leaned in, "and this is a secret, I'm a witch!" She overreacted at this revelation by raising her arms overhead and jumping sightly. She then pointed her wand up and the still floating suitcase flew up to the overhead.

"You don't say." Remus dropped his mouth open in fake shock before grinning at her. After Lily sat down next to him, he continued. "Ignore Peter, he decided that he didn't have time for his homework the last TWO months and now he has to write Transfiguration, Astronomy and Potions essays in the next six hours." Remus stared down at his friend, disapproval pouring out of every word he said.

Peter did the sensible thing in his situation and ignored him. Lily had to smile. His antics made her feel like she was just on her way to a school. A normal school, where students half-assed their homework at the last minute and laughed and _lived_ -not a battlefield.

"Peter, I offer you a deal, you get me all the sweets I want on the ride later and I will help you with Potions." Lily offered with a smile. "What is your normal grade in Potions and would you be ok with an E?"

Peter looked up from his books for the first time since she came in and stared at her as if she was a divine creature. "You would help me? Yes please! E is completely fine!"

Lily laughed at his gratefulness. "It's fine. What is the exam about?"

"Eh…" Peter looked unsure and then he gave Remus an embarrassed smile.

"Elemental resistance potions." Remus answered and rolled his eyes, before looking at Lily. "And you shouldn't encourage him to push of his work 'till the last minute by helping him."

"Of course." Lily said before completely ignoring his advice and standing up to take a quill out of her suitcase. "Here Peter, could you do me a favour and write with this one for the next hour or so?" She offered Peter the quill after ruffling up the outer vane of its feather.

"Eh, why?" Peter and Remus both looked surprised and a bit suspicious.

"It's charmed so that it can copy your handwriting. I think your teacher would notice if the essay isn't in your normal handwriting yes?" Lily answered unashamed.

"Ok…" Peter took the quill and started to write with it.

Remus crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows, however Lily she just shrugged her shoulders and went to work. After failing to get a response from her, Remus spoke, "I'm guessing this isn't the first time you wrote an essay for somebody else then?"

"Nope. You might be surprised, but I had friends in Beauxbatons that needed a bit of help from time to time too." It wasn't that big of a deal. "Where are the other two?"

Remus still didn't look happy, but answered her anyway. "They're coming. They normally just get on board at the last second." Lily absentmindedly nawed at her lip at his response before turning to work on Peter's essay.

Noticing her reaction Remus added, "Don't worry, you can come with me if you want to see them jumping on the train."

That sounded interesting enough, so Lily followed him out the door towards the very back of the train. Remus motioned for her to look out of the window of a door that was at the end of the aisle. The train's shrill horn screamed for the last time, signalling that it was about to leave. Lily looked to Remus, but he simply pointed at the entrance of the platform. Two figures immediately came running through it and bolted directly towards the train, that was starting to inch forwards. They shouted something and pumped their legs even faster. James was slightly in front with Sirius close behind. James was frantically waving at Remus, but managed to catch the bar on the back of the train. Remus grinned and helped him in through the door.

"Thank you, Moony." James managed to say between heavy breathing. Then he turned around again and shouted for Sirius to hurry up.

"Come on Padfoot! Don't be a lame duck!"

His words seemed to motivate the other teenager enough to find enough energy for a short sprint. He still didn't catch the bar, but James was leaning so far out of the door that he was able to grab Sirius' hand, however he was struggling to pull Sirius' dangingling body inside even with Remus' help.

Lily laughed before waving her wand so that some stones appeared under Sirius feet up. With the extra support, he managed to jump and land on top of James and Remus.

"Is that how they always get on the train, Remus?" Lily giggled and watched as the boys groaned in a tangle of limbs.

Remus didn't feel like answering her question as he was trapped at the bottom of the pile, but luckily James was more than willing to.

"Hey Lily," he said grinning up from underneath Sirius, "You made it to the train."

Sirius looked up at her and quickly stood up, pointedly refusing to speak to her.

"Yes, but it seems like it is a greater achievement for you two than for me." Lily offered James a hand to get up and Sirius pulled Remus to his feet.

"Oh well you know, we like to have a dramatic entrance." He grinned sheepishly and turned to Remus. "Is Peter already in the compartment?"

"Yes, he is doing some homework." Remus answered and the group made their way back to their compartment.

Lily noticed that Sirius didn't seem to happy with her presence , but she wasn't sure what to do about it. She decided to worry about it later.

"So Lily what do you say about our lovely Hogwarts Express?" James grinned at her once they were back in their seats.

"Well, it's not as impressive as a flying carriage pulled by Abraxans, but it will do for sure." Lily said back with a cheeky smirk.

"Flying carriage? Abraxans?" That seemed to get Sirius attention and his eyes lit up.

Remus laughed at James' groan. "Really Pads, what's with your fascination for every single method of flying that DOESN'T involve a broomstick?"

"Not everybody enjoys having a hard stick between his legs for hours, Prongs, but if you swing that way, we don't judge, you know." Sirius replied. The two boys bantered for a while until it was time for the prefect meeting. Remus had been surprised when he heard that is old partner wouldn't return this year, but he was happy to work with Lily.

"So you had been a prefect in Beauxbatons, yes? It's a bit surprising that Dumbledore gave you the badge just like that." Remus asked her on the way to the front of the train.

"Oh, yes and I think it was part of what Madame Maxime haggled out off him for me." Lily replied and winked at him. Remus smiled back and opened the door for her.

The meeting was less of an issue than Lily expected. The two Heads had already heard about her from the headmaster, who apparently had shared his hope that Lily would bring some new ideas to the group. The bubbly and tooth-achingly sweet Head Girl, Mimi Floot, was all too enthusiastic to hear about how things worked in Beauxbatons and ordered Remus to take care of Lily for the next couple of weeks. After Mimi finished gushing over Lily, the meeting ended pretty quickly. On the way back to their compartment Remus told her a bit about the other prefects.

"I'm happy Mimi became Head Girl, she is kind to everybody and makes you want to live up to her expectations." Remus told her, with an embarrassed flush. "She can control James and Sirius a lot better than I, just by looking disappointed at them."

"She sounds adorable!" Lily laughed at the look on Remus face.

"Yeah she is. And I'm sure she will work great with Johnson. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff normally work great together." Remus grinned back, before his mouth dropped into a scowl. "However Mimi will have to be the face of the two. I don't think Johnson can control the Slytherins much."

"Why?" Lily felt the little hairs at the back of her neck stand up at the dark look on his face. The way Remus said Slytherins made her immediately think about the war.

"Last year someone openly posted the blood status of all prefects in the Great Hall, so that Slytherins, or anyone interested really, would know who they don't have to listen to. Johnson's parents are a muggleborn and a muggle so he was rated as unworthy."

Lily watched Remus out of the corner of her eyes and saw that he did the same. "Is that your way of telling me what to expect for the next two years?"

"Yes," he said with a sigh. At least he sounded apologetic.

"What do I have to expect from the other prefects? The Slytherin prefects specifically?"

"The once from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are all fine, sure are easier to get along with than others, but they're alright. Slytherin is another beast. Dumbledore always tries to pick the best of the lot each year. Lucas Bagshot is good guy and the seventh year Slytherin prefect. He is not fighting against his own house or anything, but he has muggleborn friends in Ravenclaw and in general thinks that respect is earned not given.. Scittle in our year is a complete tosser. He doesn't go around about purging the world of muggleborns, but he claims that their place is the same as house elves."

Remus pondered over his next words before continuing, "But I think Dumbledore has started stepping on some toes by passing over certain families. Regulus is Sirius' little brother,who runs with the wrong crowd, and he wasn't selected as prefect this year. About the new girl I can't tell you much, but most of the girls are easier to handle. They're less likely to curse you, though they will pull their nose up at you and spread rumors. The stuff they make up from time to time…" Remus shuttered at some memory.

"Well I would be disappointed if they had to make stuff up. I had such an interesting life back in France, it would be a shame if I couldn't relive some of its glory." Lily flicked her hair back over her shoulder and the two re-entered their compartment.

"I'll keep my ears open for those tales." Remus responded with a quirked eyebrow followed by a chuckle.

The rest of the train ride was nice. Peter declared her a saint when she took the quill back from him and dictated his potions essay to the quill off the top of her head. The other three found this an impressive and useful ability as well. Even Sirius looked interested and asked a few questions about it. With Peter's homework complete, the boys launched into stories about Hogwarts and Hogsmeade the nearby village. They ate sweets and Peter made good on his promise to buy her a ton of them.

She was so engrossed with her candy and the stories about their adventures, Lily failed to recognize the boys' mischievous shit eating grins and whispered conversation. When the train started to slow down James and Sirius immediately pounced on her. One holding her tight while the other stole her wand. Within seconds fine ropes bound her hands and feet and a _silenco_ spell prevented her from shouting bloody murder from the top of her lungs.

"Don't worry! It's for your best!" James informed her, before throwing her over his shoulder and marching out of the train, the other three boys close behind. Remus ignored her silent shrieks for help, although he at least had the good sense to take Artemis' cage with him. James laughed at Lily's attempts to squirm free from his grasp before pinching her sides and telling her to hush. The Gryffindor boys and their captive quickly made their way along the path and approached a loud booming voice that called for first years.

"Hello Hagrid! How was your summer?"

"Oi, James. It's been fine. Got somethin' new, that got ter interest yeh m'boy. A breeding pair of tiny snidgets settled in the fores'." Hagrid, answered and the two swapped stories about birds for a few minutes before, he acknowledged the fact that James had a woman slung over his shoulder.

"Who do yeh have there and what mischief did yeh plan for the poor lass?"

"Oh, no mischief for us, this year." Sirius answered for him. "This year we'll help the people. Good deeds and the like."

While Black babbled away, James pulled her down from his shoulder and placed her on her feet. Not that she could go anywhere, seeing as she was still tied up. She settled for glaring at the four boys instead of attempting to escape. She looked at the man, Hagrid, and blinked. He was huge! Maybe even taller than Madame Maxime. He had wild hair and beard, but he exuded a warm and friendly aura.

"Hagrid, really, we just want to drop her of with you for her first ride to Hogwarts, you see," Remus added.

"Firs' ride? A bit big for a firs' year, don't yeh think?"

"Really? You think so?" James asked, while patting her head. "I don't see much of a difference, height wise at least." She tried to bite his hand, but his quick reflexes saved him. He laughed at the irritated look on Lily's face.

"Hagrid you see, it's a tragedy." Sirius sighed dramatically and leant against Hagrid's arm. "Her name is Lily and she wasted the last five years with the frog-eaters in France, instead of enjoying Hogwarts' finest education."

Peter continued Sirius' story. "Now we all know that one of the most important moments in any wizard or witch's life is to see Hogwarts for the first time when gliding over the Black Lake."

"Hagrid, as her new friends and fellow classmates, we were concerned for her." Remus added. "It wouldn't be right for her to miss out on that experience!"

Hagrid laughed loudly, amused at the boys' antics. "Alright'with me. Find a boat for her and yeh can have yer fun."

James gave him a wide grin, before picking Lily up again, this time in a princess hold, and carried her to the boats. Lots of tiny first year students bustled around them occasionally staring at them with big, frightened eyes. Peter called James over to a boat that he had successfully shooed the younger students away from.

"Perfect." James grinned and dumped her down in the small wooden boat. Lily glared at him, but the ropes around her prevented her from doing anything more.

"You will enjoy it, I promise"he added.

The four boys stood at the shore and waved Lily off as the boat started moving. After the boat was about ten meters away James flicked his wand and unbound her hands.

"See you at the feast!"

"Have fun!"

"Greet the Giant Squid from me!"

"Don't fall in the water!"

After the boys finished shouting after Lily, they turned away from the boats and ran towards the older students. The tiny first-years in the boats around her openly stared at the clearly out of place redhead.

Merlin she was going to murder those boys! Lily crossed her arms and huffed,, while the little boat rocked over the still lake. However, her homicidal thoughts fell silent when the castle came into view.

Magic, this was pure magic. The kind that Lily fell in love with, the kind that made her feel like she _belonged_. The huge castle looked like a mad architect threw every possible style together and merged together in the different towers. Hogwarts was bright with the glow of lights in the windows, which was slightly odd, considering that every inhabitant of the castle should be in the Great Hall. Nonetheless, the dancing lights were beautifully reflected on the flat surface of the lake. This place breathed magic, Lily could almost feel its hum buzzing in her ears. She had to smile at the sight. It wasn't her castle or her school, that was still Beauxbatons, but it was still magic and magic would always be home for Lily.

The boats entered a small cave before coming to a stop along the shore. The students finally were able to set their first steps on Hogwarts' ground. Hagrid walked over to Lily to help her out of her boat.

"Sorry, 'bout the boys. They are a bit unruly, but mean well." His dark eyes twinkled down on her.

"It's alright, but don't tell them that…" Lily crossed her arms, but smiled up at the huge man. "I would have hated to miss out on the view."

"Aye." Hagrid said with a hearty laugh. His beard fidgeted and his belly wiggled, and it seemed as if the space around him was laughing too. Yes, Hagrid had the kind of laugh that filled a room.

"Oh hello, Professor. How are you?"

A tall and elegant woman made her way over to the pair. She looked like she was in her thirties or maybe early forties. She had the dark hair up tied in a neat bun and exuded a sense of control over herself and her surroundings.

"Hello. Hagrid, I am fine thank you. What is going on here? And who are you young lady?" She stared at Lily over the rim of her glasses.

Lily straightened her back and took a step towards her. "Lily Evans. I transferred from Beauxbatons this year." Lily held her hand out and firmly looked the woman in her steel greyeyes. Confidence was the key to life's success or at least that was what Bellevie told her friends over and over again.

"Professor McGonagall." She introduced herself shortly and shook Lily's hand. "Ah, yes I heard about you from the headmaster, but he said you were already sorted into Gryffindor. There is no reason for you to be here."

"Aye, Professor y, it was those four Gryffindor boys. The Marauders, you see." Hagrid offered as an explanation.

McGonagall closed her eyes for a moment and sighed deeply, clearly familiar with the Marauders antics. "Yes, I see." She sighed, accepting that their behavior would never change. "Come with me, Miss Evans, and hurry to the Gryffindor table as soon as we enter the Great Hall."

She turned around again and mumbled something under her breath that Lily couldn't understand, but the Professor's narrowed eyes suggested that it probably wasn't very kind. After a short walk to the castle, Lily entered the hall with the first year students. The moment after McGonagall stepped through the entrance, a multicolored shower of sparks poured down on the first years and Lily. As the glitter brushed their skin, the students' bodies began glowing softly in the low light. Soon the first years and Lily began to hiccup and a butterfly escaped their mouths each time. The butterflies formed words in front of them.

 _Greetings and Welcome to Hogwarts_

 _Tiny-winy Firsties!_

 _(And Lily!)_

 _Salutations,_

 _The Marauders!_

 _P.S. Gryffindor is the best house!_

Well, that was an interesting start in the new school year, Lily thought, looking at the four Gryffindors wearing self-satisfied smirks. James caught Lily's eye and waved with her wand in his hand.

Yes, she was going to kill those boys for sure.

* * *

A.N. I want to thank hurricanhairandemeraleyes again for the brilliant beta reading work she puts into my story. Thank you very very much!

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters and I don't earn money with this story.

They made it to Hogwarts! I know it took some time, but they finally arrived. Petunia and Lily get along better in this story, but they are by no way best friends or anything, but they are both trying.

Lily and Snape meet again after all those years and while Lily wants to be friends with him again, the war and especially the attack on her old schoolmates make her wary. She isn't willing to lose a group of allies to rekindle an old friendship with someone of questionable alliance.

And at the very end some mischief making from the Marauders.

And yes it will take a bit longer between chapters from now on. But I hope you will keep reading.

Please leave a review. It is a great way to hear your ideas and it is lovely to know that someone enjoys to read the story I enjoy writing.

Have a nice day.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Her first night at Hogwarts, Lily had been too exhausted to do much more than introduce herself to her new roommates. She was in a room with four other sixth-year girls, which was across the hall from another room and there was another dorm for girls with five more girls in their year in Gryffindor. Apparently girls were a lot more brave and courageous than boys their sorting year.

The next morning Lily didn't really have time to get to know the girls either. The morning was a bit chaotic and Lily was more than happy to flee downstairs, where the boys were waiting to show her the way back to the Great Hall where she made a terrible discovery.

Lily stared at the different breakfast meals. All of them were typical British foods and made her stomach turn. There was no way that she would ever eat sausages and beans for breakfast. And she couldn't see a single croissants anywhere! Lily looked at the offered food with disdain, before turning to the boys that shoved this stuff into their mouths.

"Ok, where can I get a café au lait here?" A nice cup of sweet coffee could be a nice substitute breakfast for her. It wouldn't be the first time for Lily. Sadly though the boys looked at her as if she asked them for a year supply of Felix Felicis.

"Café with milk…" Sirius translated slowly. "Hmm, did they really adopt drinking coffee in Beauxbatons? Maybe that is what mother always complained about when she said that the French integrated too much muggle culture into their lives. Anyway We are in Britain, we drink tea."

Lily's upper lip quivered in disgust. She had nothing against tea, at TEA TIME. Not in the morning, damn it. James had the insolence to laugh at her misery.

"Oh come on, what basilisk spit in your tea, this morning?" he teased goodnaturedly.

Lily leveled a hard stare at James, before answering. "I know that there is a civil war going on in this country at the moment." Her hard words seemed to sober all the boys up a little bit. "And I fully prepared to treat this school as a battlefield. I just didn't expect that I would have to eat like I'm on one as well."

Peter snorted into his tea with laughter and the rest followed soon after.

"Now we know, why our matchmaking plans for Moony never worked. We always tried to set him up with sweet thoughtful girls. When in truth his type is sassy, spoilt brats!" Sirius exclaimed and slammed his hand on the table. Remus' shoulders tensed at his friends' remark and glanced at Lily uncomfortably. She could tell that he really wasn't used to being friends with the ex. Not that they had even been together for that long. They just went on a few dates for maybe a month.

"Yeah, Black, watch your mouth." She stared at him with a serious expression. "It is HOT, sassy, spoilt brat. Thank you very much." Her lips widened into a grin and she winked at Remus. Hopefully this would show him that making jokes about their relationship was fine and that there was no reason to think about it too much.

"And arrogant too, I see." James sniped back with raised eyebrows.

"Oh please. Me saying that I'm hot only proves that I own a mirror and have a set of working eyes." Lily turned in her seat to smirk at James. "And from the look of your glasses and hair, neither could say about you, Potter."

"Oh shut up and eat breakfast." James hissed back and but failed to hide a grin, before he shoved toast, beans and bacon onto her plate.

Lily pushed the plate away from her. "I'm not going to eat that." She didn't feel like she could stomach that "food" so early in the morning. Unfortunately she was hungry. "Just give me some toast and jam or something."

They got her a new plate with toast, jam and even some fruit. While Lily was nibbling on her toast and the boys shoved unseemly quantities of food into their mouths, the witch from yesterday, what was her name, McGanalot, no… McGonaget… Gonagall McGonagall! That was her name. McGonagall made her way down the table and handed out timetables.

"Minnie! Light of my life! You can't imagine how much I missed your lovely face!" Sirius stood up to face the professor before grabbing his chest with one hand and with the other wiped away an imaginary tear from his eyes.

"Mr. Black, sit back down or you will start your first day back with detention." She answered coldly. After he did just that, she rolled her eyes and handed out the timetables. "I saw that all four of you boys chose and achieved the score to continue Transfiguration on a NEWT level, even you Mr. Pettigrew." Peter turned red at her words. "Mr. Potter, congratulations on your top score in Transfiguration. I was very impressed. Sadly Professor Slughorn couldn't say the same. He assured me that he is happy to have you back in his class, but you just barely managed to achieve the necessary score. Surprisingly, Mr. Lupin even got a better score than you. He would like to talk to you about a potential tutor for you, after the first lesson." James contrary to Peter didn't gain any color, but lost a lot of it. His normal tanned skin looked strangely gray.

Then the teacher's eyes fell on Lily, whose back straightened involuntarily in response. "Miss Evans, I would like to talk to you after breakfast about your subjects. I'm sure the boys will explain your lateness to Professor Slughorn, if necessary. Right?" The four nodded. "Good, I'll return to you Ms. Evans once I'm done with the timetables." With that the witch turned to the next group of students.

All four next to her groaned. "To start a school year with Potions is just cruel." Remus moaned pitifully.

"With the Slytherins…" Sirius added with another frustrated groan.

"And with Slughorn going on and on about his Slug Club." James complained.

"Well, you nearly failed Potions, maybe he doesn't want you anymore." Remus tried to cheer James up and it actual worked pretty well.

"Really?" James' perked up at the thought. "That would be great!"

"Or he is going to make you take tutoring from Snivellus." Sirius offered with a mean grin, immediately James deflated. His head fell onto the table and a strange strangled whimper could be heard from underneath his mop of black hair.

Peter had been strangely quiet for the whole time and bit his lips. "If Sluggy, really pairs up James with Snivellus." He started to think aloud. Snivellus was a very strange name, Lily thought to herself, but then magical folk tended to have the most ridiculous names, but something was still bothering her about it. Lily shook her head, she could worry about that later. Peter turned to Lily and continued with a bright smile. "Lily, we could partner up in Potions."

"Eh, than-" Lily started to say, but was interrupted by Sirius.

"Wait WHAT?! NO, then I would be partnered with Remus! I can't be partnered with Remus! That is your and James' job!" His good looking features were twisted into a look somewhere between outrage and pure panic.

"No!" Peter gave back. "I had him last year! This year would be James' turn anyway. I refuse to be partnered with Remus for two years in a row! It's unhealthy!" He crossed his arms. "You can take a bit of responsibility as well, Sirius."

"It's not even a sure thing that I'll be paired with Snivellus. I maybe still could take Remus." James offered with a shrug.

"You nearly failed Potions and have an even worse grade than Remus, there is no way Sluggy is putting you two together." Peter argued back. "No it's Sirius' turn for once."

"I normally follow what you or James do. There is no way I can take on Remus for a year!" Sirius shook his head.

Lily looked at Remus, who sat between his arguing friends in mute self-pity. He was pushing his breakfast around his plate. Lily leaned over to him and whispered. "Are you really that bad at it?"

He sunk into himself even further. "Yeah… I'm just not good at the practical stuff."

James listened in on their conversation and added. "You destroy at least one cauldron a month. Unintentionally!"

Remus shrugged his shoulders again and refused to meet anyone's eye. She felt a bit of pity for him. From everything she had learned about him, Lily knew he was an intelligent student and really good in most subjects, but apparently Potions was not one of them.

"Can you follow simple instructions, take detailed notes of everything you are told and shut up if ordered to?" Lily asked him.

"I can do that. It's pretty much the only thing I'm good at in class." Remus' accompanying sigh sounded deeply depressed.

"Brilliant. Then we can partner up and Peter and Sirius can work together." Lily gave Remus a bright smile. Lily had long ago come to the conclusion that she worked best in Potions if the person she had to work with stayed out of her way as much as possible. Coincidentally, it sounded a lot like Remus needed someone to do the bulk of the work in the subject. Match made in heaven, if you ask Lily. Remus' eyes widened at her offer but hesitated to accept it.

"No, you don't know what you get yourself into-." James started at the same time as Peter mumbled his own doubts.

"I'm not sure, if that is the best-"

But both their protests were drowned out by Sirius' loud voice declaring, "YES, DEAL!" He jumped up from his seat and hastily shook Lily's hand. He was the only one of the boys that looked truly happy about this agreement. James bit his own lip and seemed to be in pain, Peter had his eyebrows furled in worry and Remus was busy preemptively apologizing to Lily.

However further discussion on the topic was prevented by Professor McGonagall, who came back to collect Lily after finishing handing out the rest of the timetables.

"See you in Potions." Lily waved them goodbye and left her half eaten toast behind.

The way to the McGonagall's office wasn't long and once there she offered Lily a seat. In the small room a large welcoming fire burned and the walls were completely hidden behind full bookshelves. Lily's fingers twitched with the desire to run her fingers across the spines of the books and inspect their contents.. She loved snooping through other people's libraries. It tells you a lot about a person. Lily cast one last longing look at the professor's collection, before sitting down and focusing on the woman in front of her.

"I got your results and talked with some of your old teachers." McGonagall pulled out a file, but didn't look at it. A small appreciative smile flitted across her face. "Really impressive, I have to say. I heard nearly exclusively good things about you. Professor Flitwick was disappointed you didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw."

"Thank you." Lily smiled and fixed her posture, she couldn't help but mimic the way the other woman was sitting so straight.

"I'm positive that you won't have any trouble settling into Hogwarts from an academic point of view. The question you have to ask yourself is, which subjects you would like to keep as N.E.W.T.s level courses. I would advise against trying to keep all subjects. Most students take five or six classes. You should consider it really careful if you want to take seven or more classes." McGonagall folded her hands on top of her papers, her grey eyes bored into Lily.

"I'm aware that this decision can't be easy for you, especially because of some small curriculum differences between us and Beauxbatons. I talked with my colleagues and we agreed that you'll have two weeks in which you can visit the different classes at the end of that time I would like to meet once again with you for your final decision."

Lily smiled, two weeks to test the subjects was better than Lily had hoped for. "Thank you that sounds lovely."

McGonagall nodded at her answer and handed her a timetable. It was complicated and some classes seem to overlap. Lily furrowed her brow. It didn't look like she even would be able to take all classes even if she wanted to.

"Talk to your different teachers after the lessons, especially Professor Slughorn and Flitwick. They teach Potions and Charms. Additionally, Professor Flitwick is the best if you want to continue dueling." Lily acknowledged her words with a nod.

They talked a bit more about the different subjects and even a bit about Lily's plans for the future.

"Auror, potions mistress, curse breaker… I'm not sure yet. Maybe joining Madame Ourstueuse' project to help werewolves. As a muggleborn I could use all the references I could get, don't you agree?" Lily watched the Professor carefully.

Her lips thinned and a hard look entered her eyes. "Yes, that is correct. We don't live in easy times right now and yes, there are even more difficult for you, without question. Hopefully by the time you will graduate, we'll have dealt with this insanity."

"That would be nice, yes…" Lily smiled relieved. At least this teacher didn't think less of somebody because of their muggle blood status.

"Now, it is time for you do catch up with your classes. The Potions classroom is in the dungeons." McGonagall flicked her wand and a little bird appeared. "Follow this one, it'll lead you to the right room."

Lily thanked the professor e and followed the little red bird down the stairs. The old dungeons were cold and at times the stone walls even looked wet. The air smelt stale and the area was desperately lacking in windows. Of course, Lily knew that some potions were very light sensitive, but really this was just needlessly dramatic.

Lily woke up from her thoughts when the little bird landed on the handle of a door. It twittered a bit and then puffed out of existence.

Lily looked at the door, but before she knocked she pulled her hair in a neat bun, straightened her clothes, and dawned a confident smile. Once, she knocked she didn't wait for an answer. The professor was a very large and short man, who was slightly balding. Lily forced herself to notice his eye color, pale green. It made you appear friendlier if you kept eye contact long enough, or at least that was what Bellevie always told her.

"Hello Professor. My name is Lily Evans." She stepped closer to him and shook his hand. "I transferred from Beauxbatons this year. Please excuse my late arrival to your class. Professor McGonagall had some important things to discuss with me."

The man looked welcoming and had an easy smile on his face. "Yes, yes Minerva told me to expect you. She said you would choose which classes you want to take during the next two weeks." He had a surprisingly strong grip and was still shaking her hand.

"Oh, I have no doubt that I will continue Potions." Lily answered still focused on the old professor.

"That is lovely to hear. Now tell me, Evans, any relations to Tiberius Evans, vice chairman of the education committee?" He was still shaking her hand. The look on his face suggested that he wasn't even aware of it.

"I fear not." Lily answered and asked herself when exactly he would let go of her hand. "Now I don't want to hold up the lesson any longer."

"Oh, oh yes. Please take a seat, there is one free next to Mr. –"He looked around and first his eyes landed on Remus, before he looked around again, only to come up empty. "Well…" He finally let go off her hand.

"I think next to Mr. Remus Lupin there is a free seat." Lily smiled and took a step in that direction. Lily looked around the room for the first time. Remus sat alone in the last row in the corner, two rows in front of him were empty and the tables to his left as well. The next students actually were Sirius and Peter together at one table. Next were a couple of students Lily didn't recognize. No wait two of the girls were in her dorm, but she didn't remember their names. One of them was dressed in a boy's uniform and had uneven short hacked hair. You couldn't really call that a haircut, it looked like madman was set loose with a pair of scissors. She was sitting next to a boy from Hufflepuff. The other girl Lily recognized was the opposite. She had long ebony hair, warm sun kissed skin and was very put together. Maybe they could be friends. Finally she saw James and Severus, next to each other. Neither one looked happy. James looked like the personification of misery and Severus sneered at him in contempt.

"I'm sure Potter would prefer to work with his little follower. We could switch partners." Severus' voice was cold and cutting. When Lily looked over to him, he had a hopeful glimmer in his eyes. James on the other hand looked conflicted between his clear desire to get away from Severus and something else Lily couldn't place. Whatever it was, it kept him quiet.

Slughorn seemed to consider it for a moment, before shaking his head. "No, I would like to keep those boys apart for this year. I'm sure you two will be able to settle your differences and will learn to work with each other." The professor gave both boys a stern look and both looked even more miserable at the idea. "For this class I would like you Miss Evans to work with Mr. Lupin. Should there be any questions or problems, please don't hesitate to ask and next week we will see if we reassign the partners."

"Of course." Lily smiled brightly at the teacher and sat down next to Remus. "Hey."

"Hey, I'm sorry you are stuck with me." Remus looked sorry and a bit distraught when looking at his open potions book.

"Oh don't worry. What do we have to brew?" Lily pulled the book over to her and read through the instructions.

"A Speed-up Potion. It will make you move twice as fast for a given amount of time." Remus tried to explain the theoretical part that Lily missed.

"But after the effect wears off you freeze in place and can't move for half the time the potion worked." Lily mumbled to herself, while scanning the book's pages.

"Yes, How to you know?" Remus looked at what she was reading, but the book didn't have that information.

"The potion requires shards of an icemirror, which are incredibly powerful. But whenever you use mirror of some kind you have to pay a price. Whatever you gain, you have to pay the opposite back. You move fast, you freeze," Lily explained.

Remus blinked owlishly at her, "Really?" But Lily didn't hear him through her own thoughts.

"If you could redirect the price…a Mendax solution can do that, but with the pixy wings the whole thing would blow up… but if you slime them in, you would lose a little bit of speed, but yes, YES. That could work!" Lily pulled out a binder with handwritten notes in them. She flipped through until she found the right side. A wide grin spread over her face. Yes, this is what Lily loved about potions.

"Ok, Remus I need a tin cauldron size 1 and a bronze one size 3. Dragon leather gloves and scissors and scalpels, standard potioneer tools. Oh and a grinder. Thank you very much." With that Lily left him at the table and skipped over to the ingredient cupboard.

Wild energy bubbled up in Lily. The idea to do something so undeniably magical always made her feel alive. With a soft humming on her lips she carefully selected her ingredients.

"What's that song?" Lily heard a voice behind her and turned to see James.

"Muggle song." She just answered absentmindedly and looked around. "Tell me, have you seen the eel eyes and cadmium?" Her eyes wandered over the different glass jars and bottles. Different body parts from different animals swam in some of them. The frog legs were still twitching and little lizard hearts were still beating.

"Cadmium? We don't need cadmium for this potion." James furrowed his brow and looked at her.

"Correction, you don't need cadmium for this potion, I do. Now have you seen it?" Lily crossed her arms and impatiently tapped her foot.

He chuckled for a moment and pulled a jar from the very top of the shelf. "Please don't overwhelm Remus too much. Potions is not his best subject."

"I got that from your conversation thanks, but it's fine because I know what I'm doing." Lily flipped her hair back and gave him a confident smirk. "Ah there are the eel eyes. If you now excuse me, I have to brew a potion."

When Lily was back at her place, she was pleased that Remus had prepared everything as she told him to, even if he looked a bit squeamish around their materials.

"Eh Lily, why do we need two cauldrons? The instructions don't say anything about two cauldrons. I mean I can understand if you want to work separately, I would too in your place, but why different cauldrons and-" Remus looked like he was ready ramble on for the rest of the class. Lily didn't have much patience for this and casted the _Silencio_ charm on him.

"Remus, shut up and stop freaking out. I know what I'm doing alright?. All you have to do is be quiet unless I'm talking to you and take notes on everything I say and do and be able to repeat them to back to me. Okay?" Lily waited until Remus nodded at her demands before lifting the charm again. "Brilliant, start writing."

Lily had to say that Remus was incredibly diligent in his new job. He had his whole attention on her and carefully transcribed everything she said, even the most obscure mumble. He even tried to write down the different French words she sprinkled in her sentences. It was painfully obvious that he didn't speak French, but he wrote down a phonetic script for them anyway.

"Did I say twenty-three or thirty-two?" Lily asked while shirring her potion carefully.

"Vant-deu?" It sounded more like a question than an answer but he tried his very best.

"Twenty-two? Hmm…" She looked down on her notes. "Then we need a pinch more." Lily mumbled to herself and added some more butterfly dust to one of the cauldrons.

It was a shot of luck that nobody bothered them in their little dark corner. From time to time she saw Professor Slughorn cast some worried looks their way, but since there were no explosions, he focused on trying to keep the peace between James and Severus.

She and Remus were practically on the opposite end of the dungeon from them and she could still hear them hiss at each other. They looked like they were a word away from dueling right in the middle of the lesson. Honestly were they sixteen or six?

One small voice in the back of her head tried to convince Lily to get involved and take care of their rubbish. But the thought was quickly drowned out by a very big voice informing her that right now all her concentration should be on the potion and another small rational voice that added that Lily didn't even know what they were bickering about. She had kind of heard Severus' side of the stories in letters, but for all she knew James' had a very different version of events.

Lily shook her head and concentrated on the task in front of her. Her Mendax solution was coming along great and would be ready in only a few minutes. By then the Speed-up base would be finished and she could combine the two.

Ten minutes later it was all lined up. Lily rubbed her hands and her eyes sparkled with glee. Remus looked somewhat worried next to her. Very carefully Lily checked the temperature and color one last time. Yes, it had the right shade of scarlet and the temperature was the predicted twenty degrees lower than in the original recipe. That was very important. She gave one last check to the piece of paper on front of her, scanning the numbers a fifth time for any mistake. She then nodded satisfied, and turned to the other potion before attentively measuring exactly fifty-seven milliliters.

Lily turned to Remus with a grin. "Ok, now we come to the exciting part."

"I honestly prefer my Potions lessons to be as unexciting and boring as possible." He mumbled in return, but Lily ignored his lack of enthusiasm.

"We have to mix the potions together so we need another pot. A big one." Lily informed him, while pulling out a glass still and charming a cooling system behind it. Remus offered her another cauldron. He nervously bit his lips.

"Don't worry Remus, I know what I'm doing." Lily grinned at him. "And now, please take this." She put the glass still, with the cooler in his hands. "Once I poured the Mendax into the potion, you have to immediately put that on the cauldron, ok? You have to be fast. I'm counting down."

He still looked a bit sickly, but nodded anyway. Lily took the beaker with the Mendax solution in her hand and held it next to the cauldron, while Remus' shaking hands held the still over it.

"Three, two, ONE!" Lily poured everything in at once and pulled her hand back so that Remus could slam the device down.

For five seconds everything was quiet but then slowly small bubbles started to rise to the surface. Eventually, the cauldron was bubbling furiously causing the pot to shake a little bit. Lily quickly cast a spell to keep everything in its place. With a loud hiss, the potion finished transitioning from liquid to gas, and the steamrose through the than ran through the cooler section where it condensed into a pure orange fluid that poured down into the extra pot below.

Lily's cheeks hurt from how wide she grinned, but her partner was more confused than excited.

"So is that it now-?" He asked.

"It's perfect!" Lily grinned and waved the smell over to her nose. "Now we have to let the potion rest for half an hour and make sure it doesn't start to smoke. If it does we have to add tranquil flour."

"But the class ends in twenty minutes…" Remus informed her, looking extremely panicked about their situation.

"Just go to the professor and explain to him that we need ten minutes longer today." Lily shooed him towards Slughorn without taking her eyes of the potion. Remus' Adam's apple jumped and he looked very unhappy, but after taking a shaky breath he made his way to the front of the room.

Slughorn stood next to Severus and James and was apparently singing their praises. They had finished their potion early and, if the scarlet red color was any indication, perfectly. Lily couldn't hear what Remus, Slughorn or anyone else was saying but, the professor didn't look too happy with her partner. The massive man eventually brushed past Remus and walked up to their table. Remus tucked his head into his shoulders and followed after Slughorn and Severus and James seemed to walked behind him, seemingly out of curiosity.

"What is the problem dear?" The professor looked skeptically at their orange potion. "Mr. Lupin told me that you can't finish the potion?" He was about to tip a spoon into the pot, but Lily halted his hand.

"There is no problem. The potion just needs to rest for a tad longer than the remaining class time. We would just like to stay for maybe fifteen minutes after the lesson. That is all." Lily put on her most charming smile and explained the situation calmly.

"I'm not sure if that is worth it. I fear your potion has the wrong color." He lifted a little bottle with a scarlet red liquid in the air. "See, Mr. Snape and Mr. Potter created this perfect potion notice how different the color is." Severus sneered when he and James were named as equal creators of the potion. "But I'm sure we can find out why your potion has the wrong color." The professor smiled kindly, "Don't worry, nothing exploded or melted." He looked at Remus, "That is a success of its own."

"Oh, I know perfectly well why the potion has this color. It's from the glowworms in the Mendax solution." At the surprised and confused looks of both the professor and her fellow students, Lily continued. "The Freezing side effect of the potion is really unfortunate and limits its use. The risks are just too high. We" Lily gestured to Remus and herself. Remus eyes widened at being being included in this thought process but held his tongue. "thought it would be a good idea to change the side effects with something less dangerous. So after drinking this, the user will be briefly shrouded in darkness. It will then flow out of them and cover everything in a nearby radius, allowing the user to escape if necessary." Lily couldn't contain her glee about this and smiled widely at the teacher in front of her.

Slughorn blinked. "You changed the potion?"

"Yes."

"That is very advanced magic and incredibly tricky." Slughorn looked thoughtfully at the completely still potion. "How did you do it?" A bit of excitement crept out of his voice..

"Yes, Mendax solution can not be heated over 110 degrees or else it explodes, while the speed-up potion needs a constant heat of 128 degrees." Snape cut in and peered at the potion. He didn't sound like he doubted her and seemed genuinely interested in learning about what she did. ,

"First of course you have to lower the reaction energy for the speed-up potion so you need the right catalyst." Lily grinned at him. She could nearly see the gears turning in his head.

"Catalyst? For this? It would have to be a transition metal… Probably from the later groups…" He was mumbling and Lily nodded to each of his conclusions. Professor Slughorn beamed at their conversation.

"Like cadmium!" James cut in out of nowhere with the snap of his fingers. "Right?" He grinned at Lily and she had to laugh at the ridiculously proud look on his face and Severus who looked like he had just been slapped. He scowled darkly at James, who didn't pay the Slytherin any attention.

"Yes. Like cadmium. Remus wrote everything down, didn't you?" Lily looked at her partner and he nodded, while pulling out his notes. "We will have to clean them a bit, but that shouldn't be a problem. We can hand them in next class."

"Of course, of course." Slughorn stared at the potion with itching fingers. "How much longer did you say you needed?"

"Fifteen minutes clean up time included.."

"Of course you can stay that long." The professor smiled brightly at her. "Evans you said your name is, right? Any relations to Tib- oh no I already asked you that. Hmm, what about Fiona Blakewood? She was born an Evans if I remember right…"

"Neither. As far as we know I'm the only witch in at least five generations in my family." Lily watched the Potionmaster's response very carefully.

"You are muggleborn?" He looked astonished. "My that is impressive. Such talent out of nowhere. Do you have time on the 12th of this month? It's a Sunday and I am having a little get together with some of my most promising students. It would be lovely if you could attend, dear." Slughorn took Lily's hand in both of his massive ones and shook it vigorously. James snorted in laughter, but hid it behind a cough. "Oh James, I hope you will have time as well, this year. I was a bit disappointed at your results last year, but I'm sure that you were just having a terrible day when you took the exam, that could happen to the best of us." He let go of Lily and slapped James on the back. A painful expression crossed James' face.

"I will have to see. There is always a chance that Quidditch tryouts get in the way." He smiled innocently at Slughorn, but Lily had the distinct impression that James would do everything in his power as captain of the Gryffindor team to make sure the try-outs would be on the 12th.

"Of course, of course. You young people and your sport." Slughorn laughed and turned back to Lily and Remus. "You are more than welcome to stay after class to finish this potion. I will write you an excuse for your next class. Oh and please, fill up five vials with the potion. I would like to test it properly." With that he left and took care of his other students.

"You really are good at this, aren't you?" James smirked at her, but the look of awe in his eyes revealed just how impressed he was.

"I'm brilliant at it." Lily answered.

* * *

A.N.

First a huge thank you to hurricanhairandemeraldeyes for doing all this fantastic beta reading work for me (at least for the current chapters, the old once will need some time). You are the very best.

About the chapter: We are told that Lily has a natural flare in Potions and I wanted to show that. Both she and Snape are natural at it, but indifferent ways. Snape searches for ways to improve and perfect the brewing of a potion, but Lily wants to improve the potion itself, want to change it and make something new out of it. Both are equally brilliant and important in their own way, but if I remember correctly that are the notes in Snape's book, how to perfect a potion and its brewing, not the search for new potions. I put a little bit of chemistry in this chapter, but there must be some basic rules that would apply to both chemistry and brewing of potions.

None of the Marauders are on that level of potion making, but I actual put Remus at the bottom of that class list. It was a surprise to everybody, including Remus, that he got the grade for NEWTs level potion and he only takes it because as a werewolf he should have as many classes as possible. Remus said in the books itself that he was never good in potions. I actual made Peter decent in that class and that is how I see him as a student, decent. He never excels in anything, but he is not terrible in anything. But next to his friends that are great at things and top of the class, he felt like a failure and stupid. But he can't be that terrible of a wizard on his own. He manage to brew the resurrection potion for Voldemort and all those small potions to keep him alive in the fourth book. Even if he had instructions of Voldemort, Peter was still the one doing the work.

I said in an earlier chapter that James got arrogant last year at the OWLs and nearly his potion exam, now that came back to him and he is forced to work with Snape. Neither one is happy about it. He can of course not follow Lily and Snape in their discussion about catalysts, but he just remembered that Lily searched for cadmium earlier, but to Slughorn it made the impression that he could follow.

Please leave a review and tell me what you think.

Have a nice day.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

"You really suck at being friends with other girls." James shook his head and smirked at Lily. She glared back, which only made him laugh before sliding over to make room for her on the couch he shared with the other Marauders. With a sigh she sat down next to him. Just a moment ago Bertha, his ex-girlfriend and Marlene her best friend completely blew Lily off, much to her annoyance. The two other Gryffindor girls shared a room with Lily, but it didn't look like they would be inviting her to any pillow talk any time soon. And considering that it was about an hour from curfew she would have to face their shared dorm soon.

"Shut up, I'm not accepting criticism from somebody who never even learned to brush his hair as a toddler. " Lily fired back.

"Oh I see, taking cheap shots at my looks. Guess you're all out of real arguments then?" James grinned back.

Lily stared at him with a cold look. "No and this wasn't only a shot at your looks, but at your mental capabilities as well and the fact that this is lost on you only reinforces my argument."

"Oooh that is another point for Lily." Peter pointed out and elbowed Remus in the ribs, who pulled out a notepad and drew another line down.

Sirius looked at the paper before shooting a disgruntling look at his best friend. "Really Potter step up your game. This is embarrassing."

"Since when do you call me Potter, Padfoot?" James raised a questioning eyebrow at his best friend.

"Since you turned into a pathetic loser. I bet money on you, because I thought you could beat Evans in a battle of wits. " Sirius accused James with a hurt expression. "Now I see how wrong I was."

"Hey, I'm not doing that terrible." James defended himself. "I got a point too. I pointed out how much she sucks at having lady friends." James crossed his arms and stared at Remus to give him a point too.

"Please, first you have no idea, how I deal with my _lady friends_ and who calls them that anyway?Second I have lots of female friends back home."

"Back home? Who exactly are you talking about? Petunia? You two talked to each other even less than Sirius with the muggle postman. Or are you talking about my mum and her old lady circle that as far as I remember thinks you are rude and obnoxious." James smirked, challenging her.

"You don't really expect me to think of that city as home, do you? My home is in France, where my best friends are. Most of whom are girls, thank you very much." Lily rolled her eyes at him.

"You think France is more home than where you live?" Of course that made sense. Lily was only back in England for two months, but for some reason, the idea bothered James. He wanted her to feel welcome here.

"The day I accept Britain as home, is the day I have to admit that your war is my war and my responsibility to fight in it." Lily replied coldly. James looked at his friends and they looked as uncomfortable as he felt. The war had always been real, of course, no question there, but it had always been far off, like leaving Hogwarts, getting a job and starting a family. Something their future self would deal with and find a solution for, but for Lily it happened now and here.

Should he apologize to her? For what exactly? That they had some mad men on the loose? It wasn't really his fault right?

But Lily didn't seem to expect him to say anything. She continued to talk. "And if anything is the problem here it's that the girls can't deal with my flare."

"Yes, and if the spell doesn't work it's the wands fault…" James teased her and pinched her side. Her high pitched squeeze made him laugh.

"Oh sod of you wanker. I'm off." Lily claimed and stood up.

"Where are you off to?" Remus asked. James felt slightly startled by his friend's question. He had nearly forgot that the other three sat next to them as well.

"Flitwick. I want to talk with him about the dueling club." Lily answered while straightening out her skirt and twisted her hair into a bun. It was strangely fascinating to watch. How exactly did this hair stay exactly where Lily wanted them to stay? Not a single strand of hair poked out of the bun. James couldn't even convince two wisps of his hair to point in the same direction and hers just always look perfect.

"Are you guys in the dueling club? You all seem like the type that enjoys hexing each other." Lily continued.

"Nay. The club is only open from third year up and at that time we already had some illegal duels in the halls and that disqualifies you for the club." Sirius answered her shortly. Sirius was still strange towards her at times. At one moment he enjoyed teasing each other and making stupid jokes and in the next he acted like Lily was an ulcer that threatened the friendship of the Marauders. Lily struggled with how to handle Sirius because of that, but tried to ignore his mood swings for the most part.

"Shame, I would have loved hexing your asses into next week." She smirked and walked off. For a moment James watched her leave and enjoyed the confident swing of her hips, before she disappeared through the portray hole.

"'Hexing your asses into next week'" Sirius mocked her words. "Who does she think she is?" He crossed his arms.

"Oh calm down." Remus said and rolled his eyes. "What is your problem with Lily?"

"I don't like her arrogance." Sirius said with a sneer on his face. The other three stared at him with raised eyebrows. "What? I just mean, what makes her think she could take any of us on?"

"First, hello pot, I see you've met kettle." Remus replied, shaking his head. "And second what makes you think she doesn't have a reason to be arrogant? You do know that she was the bloody dueling champion in Beauxbatons, right?"

Sirius just crossed his arms and mumbled something unintelligible into his imaginary bread.

"She was the champion?" James couldn't help but ask. "I knew she was in the club but… How did you know that?"

"She told me when we were outside, you know after we found her by your fireplace…" Remus' voice trailed off sadly as he stared at the ground. "She felt guilty that she wasn't there to fight the Death , this is all messed up."

"Do you think she will ever get used to being at Hogwarts?" James asked Remus. The idea that Lily would always spend her time looking over her shoulder with her wand at the ready saddened James. He wanted her to laugh and be happy, not have her thinking about getting away from here as fast as possible.

Remus shrugged his shoulders in a non-answer. He was just as clueless as James. Even if he had anything else to say about the topic, James would never know, because their conversation was then interrupted by Samantha , Sam Jones, you that was the would only call the young witch by her full name if you had a desire to be hexed in a creative way.

"Hey boys." She greeted them with a tried sigh. She casually tossed her body over the side of an armchair and brushed her short hair out off her face. "Can one of you lend me your Potions homework? I couldn't be arsed to do mine."

"Really Sam, it's too early to be slacking off." James scorned her, with a displeased look on his face. "I don't want to have another conversation with McG again to try to keep you on the team." He fixed her with a dark look, but pulled out his homework and walked towards her anyway.

"Aye, aye captain." Sam answered while rolling her eyes. She then attempted to grab the scroll from him, her arms drowning in the too long selves of her baggy jumper. However, James quickly moved his hand so the scroll was just barely out of her reach.

"I mean it Jones. I don't want to look for a new beater as well. If your grades drop, I will personally drag you to tutoring. Do you understand me?" James told her in the sternest voice he could muster, the one he specifically reserved for captain business.

"Sure, Potter. But who do you think I should ask for such tutoring? Your darling new Potions partner Snivellus?" She answered with a sly look on her face.

James groaned like he always did when somebody reminded him on the fact who his Potions partner for this year was. Really, he never thought Slughorn would hide such cruelty under his layers of obnoxious cheerfulness, charming headhunting and fat belly. Life was unfair.

Jones and his traitorous mates laughed at James' misery. "I'd like to see one of you stand next to Snivellus for hours each week." James grumbled back.

"Oh, don't worry I'm sure next time he assigns new partners you will be free of that hooked nosed bat." Sirius assured his best friend, before adding. "I'm sure he wets himself with excitement at the idea to pair the git with his new wunderkind."

James unconsciously grimaced at Sirius' suggestion. Although James wanted nothing more than to be free of the greasy Slytherin, the idea of Snape being partners with Lily made him feel much worse.

"What?" Jones teased. "Don't tell me you want to keep Snape as your lab partner."

"Of course not. But I don't have to be happy about pushing him onto her." James claimed and Sirius rolled his eyes. James shot him a quick glare. "Not only is she a friend of our." James reminded Sirius. "But I don't like the idea of any muggleborn being so close to a Slytherin wannabe Death Eater…"

"If it is any reassurance, it looks more like Snape wants to jump her than curse her." Peter added in a distinctly unhelpful way. The idea that Snape had his eyes on a girl alone crept James out, but the fact that the target of that- _that affection_ was Lily was painful to think about.

Sam shook her head. "Really do all guys only thinking with their little guys?" She asked with disgust. "By the way, which of you guys is actually shagging her?"

"What jealous, Sammy?" Sirius asked with a grin throwing an arm around her shoulder and was immediately punched for it.

"Of course not." The tomboy hissed at him. "I just want to know, who is going out with that life-sized dress-up doll." James raised a eyebrow at the way his teammate talked about at Lily. Her tone didn't sit right with him.

"Obviously not me." Sirius informed her with a wolfish grin. "I prefer un-dressed dolls." He laughed at his own joke. Peter and Sam joined him.

"I don't see the difference." Sam said, still laughing. Remus scowled at their jokes and James crossed his arms. It wasn't that funny. Sam turned to James. "So she is your new plaything? Not really your normal type, but I won't judge." She said, but James couldn't help but think, that she sounded pretty judgy to him.

"Oh, but there you are mistaken, my dearest Sam. Actual Remus here has dibs on her." Sirius corrected her, which caused Remus to blush again and made him look down on his lap. Sam's eyes widened and she stared at him in shock. "Oh, yes Remus here had some hot make-out time with Miss Evans over the summer." Sirius' explanation was utterly unwanted, if you asked James and from the look of it Remus thought so as well.

"Really I thought you would have a better taste out of you four." Sam mocked him. "But how did you even meet her in the summer?"

"She is my new neighbor." James informed her. "And I don't really understand what your problem is with her. To be honest Sam, both of you refuse take any crap from anyone. I'd assume you get on like a house on fire."

His words were met with an angry glare and his teammate almost looked insulted at being compared to Lily. "She is a brainless fashion mannequin, that spends far too much time in the morning to get ready with her bazillion dresses and robes and sea of make-up products." She scowled in contempt at the idea of all of it.

"Girls are brutal to each other…" Peter mumbled, but quiet enough that only the boys could hear it, who all nodded in agreement while Sam continued her rant. The girl then switched topics to how unbearable it was that Lily was such a teacher's pet.

James rolled his eyes. "Maybe it would help your grades if you were more of one." He then got up and stretched. "But speaking of teacher's pets, I need to see McG to book a date for the Quidditch try-outs? Do you want to come along, Jones?"

"Nay, I still haven't submitted by transfiguration homework for the holidays. I prefer to avoid that hag as much as possible." The flippant answer from his teammate, didn't improve James' mood, to be exact it did the opposite. James clenched his fists and his jaw tensed in a painful way.

"You! Go! Do that shit now! And I'm going to freaking control that!" James ordered her to dorm with a quite forceful jab with his arm in that direction. Much to the amusement o the other three Marauders, who started to silently shake with laughter.

Once she finally trotted off to do her work James groaned loudly while the silent giggles of his friends transitioned into full blown falling-off-the-couch holding-their-bellies laughter.

"My Prongs after all those years of me forcing you lot to do your schoolwork. How the tables have turned." Remus mocked him. He wiped away a fake tear. "They grow up so fast. Today you are all responsible and do your homework, when it just seemed like yesterday that you were throwing dungbombs into Filch office… Oh wait you did do that yesterday."

"First, Filch had it coming, second between getting two new players and Clover still being pissed that I got captaincy over him last year, I don't really fancy losing Jones just because she can't keep her grades up." James explained while packing his bag. "Can you keep an eye on her and make sure she really does her work, please? Don't do it for me, do it for the Gryffindor team." He batted his eyelashes at his friends, who just shooed him away with rolled eyes and a nod.

"You are the best!" James said, making his way towards the portrait exit.

And off he was. James rushed off to Professor McGonagall's office. On the way he nearly ran into a group of first or second maybe even third year students. James couldn't tell, they were all so tiny at that age. Some of the girls giggled at his frantic sprinting, when he shouted an apology over his shoulder .

In front of the office he knocked before immediately checking the door to see if it would open. It didn't. So James took a moment to catch his breath until the door was opened for him by the professor. She raised a single eyebrow at him and looked down at the door handle. Apparently she had noticed his attempt to let himself in. James shrugged his shoulders and gave her a sheepish, but ultimate unashamed grin in return.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Potter?" She finally said and gestured him into her office. He strolled in with ease and sat down on his favorite chair in front of her desk. He knew this office quite well, if he could say so himself. He then looked around if anything changed over the summer.

"Oh! Is that a quaffle form the world cup?" James asked excitedly and leaned back on his chair to get a better lookr. "With the signatures of the Scottish national team?" James marveled at the red ball in her cabinet.

"As a matter of fact it is, but I assume you didn't come here to catch up. Did you?" The stern teacher pinned him down with a stare that promised unfortunate things in the future if he did.

"I'm hurt! Here I come all this way to have some inspiring conversation with the brightest witch I know and that is how I'm greeted?" James clutched his chest in despair. McGonagall glared down at him in a disapproving way, but James could see the corners of her mouth twitch upward.

"Mr. Potter, stop this act, immediately or I'll be forced to give you detention." Her voice sounded stern but they both knew it was an empty threat. Wasting detention time like that was useless. They both knew that James would sooner rather than later do something tha deserves punishment a lot more and giving him detention now would devalue those detentions. But James decided not to risk it anyway. You never knew with McG. You think you have figured her out and Bam! She surprises you with something, normally a new idea to punish them. James sat up straight again.

"Actually I'm really here to talk about Quidditch. I want to confirm a date for the try-outs with you. I was thinking maybe next Saturday." James pulled out a prepared flyer to show his head of house.

"That would be the 12th, wouldn't it?" McGonagall asked. She sat down opposite of him and watched him with a piercing look. With a flick of her wand a kettle of tea prepared itself. "You see Mr. Potter, Professor Slughorn informed me that he has a Slug Club meeting that day and asked me to keep that day free. He seemed to be under the impression that you would be in attendance."

"Oh did he?" James tried to act clueless but McGonagall's raised eyebrow told him that he had failed..

"I can't give you the 12th." McGonagall informed him and James' shoulders sagged down. So much for that plan… "But I can offer you the 13th in the morning, which would hypothetically give you an excuse to leave his party early." A hint of a smile played on her face and James would swear that he saw mischief twinkle in her eyes. A wide grin stretched over James' face in response.

"I knew there was a reason why you are my favorite professor, Minnie!"

"I'll let that slide for once, because, thanks to your efforts, this beautiful Quidditch cup resides in my office this year and I expect it to stay here next year as well, Mr. Potter." She said with a hard glare.

"That is the plan." James agreed.

"Then it wouldn't be a problem for you to share your plan with me." With a swish of her wand a cup of tea appeared in front of each of them. With a laugh James started to explain his new tactics and the kinds of players he was looking for. McGonagall added some helpful tips here and there but mostly listened silently. James had always known that their transfiguration teacher was a huge quidditch enthusiast, but last year after he got the captain badge with his school letter, he got to know a completly new side of her. That woman didn't just love quidditch she breathed it. If it weren't against the school rules, he was sure, she would love to be the trainer of the Gryffindor team.

Half an hour later James left her office, with a couple of scrolls filled with tactic discussions and the likes. James whistled a cheery tone and made his way back to the common room. The halls were practically empty. The rumble of his stomach convinced James to make a detour to the kitchen. If anybody asked why he was out after curfew he could always claim to have a meeting with McGonagall, right? Yeah, besides a growing teenage boy needs food. The house elves always fell over themselves to give him whatever he wanted.

He soon left the kitchen with his bag full food and a smile on his face, however it as he ran into someone around the corner. James stumbled back, but managed to keep his balance. Unfortunately the other person didn't. James could hear their body hit the floor and the clinking of glass.

"I didn't see you. Sor-" The word died in his throat just as he was about to reach his hand to the other person. James pulled his hand back and frowned. "Snivellus…" James crossed his arms. "What is a greasy bat like you doing so far from his musty catacombs?"

His Slytherin nemesis glared right back at him and his hand reached into his pocket. James reacted immediately, pulling out his own wand. But the other wasn't doing the same. James could hear the clinking of glass vials again.

"Oh how typical for you Potter to go for your wand first." Snape sneered back.

James lowered his wand, but still kept a firm grip on it. He didn't trust Snape as far as he could throw him and considering Snape's general greasy state of being, James wasn't sure if he could even grab the Slytherin long enough to throw without him just slipping right out of his hands.

James still wasn't sure what to make out of this. Sure Snape was a little Potions freak, (don't tell Lily he said that), but carrying glass vials around outside of the dungeon was definitely suspicious?

"What potions are you trying to slip people now?" James asked the other boy, who was attempting to get back on his feet. It was only half mocking, the other half was seriously concerned about what the Slytherin was up to. "You don't plan to drug a poor girl up with love potion, do you? If you do, it better have the same mind controlling effect the Imperious has, because even under a love potion I doubt any girl would like to come close enough to actually touch you."

Snivellus flushed an angry red and hissed back at James. Hissing how very Slytherin of him. "Only If I prefered mindless little fans that only care about appearance instead of intelligence."

"First that is a terrible way to talk about girls." James shook his head with a mock disappointed look on his face. "And second, funny that you say something like that, considering that you could pull neither. Or are you talking about those lovely Slytherin girls, who through selective breeding have lost the ability to have good taste. I have terrible news for you then, because I don't think you are pureblooded enough for those. The name Snape doesn't appear in the Sacred Twenty-eight, I'm sorry."

Taunting Snivellus was always a bit of fun and it was a way to stand up against everything he and his pureblood supremacist buddies stand for. And James knew that Snape hated that fact that Sirius and James had "purer" blood than him.

"You still haven't told me what you are doing here, Snivellus or do I really have to warn all the girls about potentially being slipped a love potion?" James really looked at his classmate, who had some kind of packet with him that he was trying to hide under his robe. For a moment James thought about taking it away, but if he was honest with himself he wasn't in the mood to deal much longer with the greasy little Slytherin.

"I don't think I own you any explanation, Potter." Snape spat out.

"I just don't want you to give some unsuspecting little first years nightmares from seeing you so close to their bedtime." James answered with a confident smirk on his face.

"You little arrogant-" Angry red spots appeared on the pale face of the Slytherin and made him even more unattractive.. A feat James nearly believed was impossible. But before Snape could finish his sentence they were interrupted by Professor Slughorn.

"What are you boys up to this late?" He walked around the corner and stopped in front of both of them, his belly moving a second longer than the rest of him.

James put on a smile before answering. "Oh I just had a meeting with Professor McGonagall about a date for our Quidditch try-outs and it took a bit longer than we thought."

"Ah yes, Minerva is always very passionate about her Quidditch, isn't she?" Slughorn answered with a jovial laugh. "I hope it doesn't interfere with my Slug party on Saturday. I would really like to see you come this year, my boy."

James felt his smile trying to slip away, but he concentrated hard to keep it on his face. "No." And it deeply grieved him to say that. "We have it on Sunday."

"Very good, very good!" The massive professor declared cheerfully, before putting an arm around James' shoulder and squeezing it affectionately. James felt an uncomfortable shiver at the unasked touch. The idea of spending his Saturday evening in the company of his Potions teacher and his assemble of 'worthy people' filled James with dread.

There were two reasons why James didn't just tell Slughorn to shove it. One, being as great a troublemaker as James was, it would be y helpful to stay on the professors good side. Second and probably even more important his mum forbade him from being overly rude to Slughorn.

The professor turned to Snape and James was more than glad to have his attention directed elsewhere. "And you my boy? What are you doing here so late?"

Snape didn't look happy at the question and leveled a hateful look at James, before answering. "A friend dropped off a few things for me. I met him at the gate." He vaguely answered.

"Oh?" Slughorn wrinkled his brow. "And why couldn't your friend just send it with an owl?" Slughorn looked closer at the packet.

"We wanted to catch up a little bit." Snape tried to smile but could only manage a grimace that looked unnatural and scary at least in James' opinion. He also couldn't imagine that anyone would want to 'catch up' with Snape or that he had any real friends aside from his little Death-Eater-prep-club.

"It's against school rules, as you surely know, Severus." The teacher reminded him. "Please meet with your outside friends at the next Hogsmeade weekend, in the future. I fear that will be a detention for you tomorrow night. And now both of you off to your common rooms."

James didn't needed to be told twice and skipped off.

* * *

A.N. Thank you to hurricanhairandemeraldeyes. Your work is improving my story so much and for that I'm grateful.

About the chapter: Her we see a bit more of 'James' Hogwarts' compared to 'Lily's Hogwarts'. To Lily everything is new and a bit threatening, but to James that is his normal. He has is friends and quidditch team here. It is normal that some Slytherins are wannabe Death Eaters and it is normal to make fun of that, but through Lily first feels like protecting someone personally from all that. For the first time some of what is normal isn't normal. But those thoughts are still a soft whisper in his mind. For now he is still more worried about his quidditch team and stuff like that.

I introduced one of his teammates and Lily's dormmate here. Please tell me what you think about her.

I want to thank everybody once again for their lovely comments. It is always a great motivation to keep writing (even if this chapter took a bit longer, sorry about that). Please leave me a comment and help me improve.

Have a nice day.


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